Dear Miss Cruise,
It’s the Cruise Collections now, a time to take a break from all the heavy tweeds and tailoreds, and go for something a lot more breezy and light. In case you don’t already know, the Cruise Collections, also known as “resort” or “holiday” collections, drops at the tail end of the Fall collections (November) and bridges the months until the Spring collections have sprung (February), between the two main ready-to-wear seasons.
Historically, they were created with the jet set in mind, and catered to the very affluent customer who needed a wardrobe for their mid-winter travels: To escape harsh winters, they would fly (or cruise in ships!) to balmy climates different to their own. At these warmer resorts, they would shed the heavy winter wardrobe and need lighter clothes, for play and evenings.
Over time, that’s how Cruise has evolved from a practical need, into a full-blown fashion season. All the major luxury brands have seized this as an opportunity to bridge the slower fashion months of November and January with a must-have mid-season collection full of non-seasonal clothes and accessories to beguile the eye and the purse.
With Cruise Collections dropping into stores even as you read this, let’s take an overview of what the big brands are doing and how we can apply it to our personal lives. At Dior, romantic but restrained flamenco dresses in taffeta, fluffy lashings of lace, high-waisted bullfighter pants, and heavily embroidered capes literally spell Spanish to the letter. Virginie Viard, the designer at Chanel went Noughties sportive. She sent out butch-chic girls in a racing driver’s all-in-ones and mechanic’s overalls, although dripping with sequined embellishments and festooned with logo accessories. Theatrical as usual, Gucci was full of references to the Hollywood of the 1940s, through to the disco 1970s, with lots of vintage Paul Poiret and Sonia Delaunay graphics thrown into the mix. If the Metaverse avatars of the near-future were to come alive, they would look like the models stomping the Louis Vuitton runway. Futuristic priestess dresses, one more voluminous than the next, were cut from robust jacquards; The aesthetics of computer games, Marvel movies, Game of Thrones and Dune was evident in the stately, and the fierce cyber troops of extraordinary, otherworldly, superheroine goddesses.
At ABARA find all the handbags that can fit these themes for daily application. The sexy and bold Spanish vibes at Dior can best match with the sassy Bow Bag Mini. Sporty Chanel styles cand go speedily with the Weekend Clutch Mini. The retro-fab Gucci collection will go perfectly with the Vanity Case and the Futuristic Louis Vuitton will totally vibe with the Bow Accordion Mini to the pixel!
