Highlights from the 2024 cruise shows
From Gucci in Seoul to Dior in Mexico, we round up the best and biggest moments of the season
The cruise shows often see designers head to far-flung locations to present their latest collections, but this season was one for the books, with a huge number of brands choosing to stage shows far away from where they are usually based.
We headed to Mexico City with Dior, where the brand celebrated Frida Kahlo; we journeyed to Los Angeles for a star-studded Chanel show; celebrated the beauty of Seoul with Gucci; saw Versace take on Cannes; and enjoyed a Midsommer-inspired celebration with Max Mara in Stockholm, and that's just to name a few.
Below, we round up the biggest moments from the cruise 2024 collections.
Max Mara in Stockholm
Max Mara brought the cruise 2024 season to an end, hosting its show at the City Hall in Stockholm, and presenting a collection that was an ode to Midsommer, the traditional folk festival that celebrates the gift of summer.
"One of the most charming traditions is the collection of seven types of wild flowers – Septem Flores," the brand explained of its inspiration for the collection. "The legend says that anyone lucky enough to find one of each should sleep with them under their pillow in order to dream of their future sweetheart."
Floral inspiration was clear to see in some of the embroidery and delicate watercolour-esque prints, while models (and show attendees) wore flower crowns. There were also nods to the life of Swedish author, Selma Lagerlöf, in the collection: "She represents Scandinavia’s contribution to the making of the modern metropolitan self. Lagerlöf spun tales of contemporary life, regional legends, classical myths and fairy tale motifs. In 1909, she became the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize, signalling the reintegration of the folkloric heritage into Scandinavian culture."
Gucci in Seoul
Gucci's show took place at the 14th Century Gyeongbokgung Palace; it was the first time that a production of its kind had been staged at the venue, and the house flew in plenty of A-list faces for the occasion, including house muses Dakota Johnson, Jodie Turner-Smith and Elizabeth Olsen.
When it came to the clothes, much of the collection was influenced by South Korean street style, as well as the multicultural style that is found on the street in cities around the globe, with nods to both surf and skatewear.
"In this digital age, different cultural and subcultural approaches to everyday dressing are now shared globally. These ways of wearing clothes tie us together across cultures and create a global community spirit founded in fashion...The collection merges the wetsuits of the Han River windsurfers with the skirt suits of bourgeois dressing, and the tropes of the skateboarding uniform with formal tailoring."
This was the latest Gucci collection to be designed by the in-house team after Alessandro Michele departed the brand late last year. The house's new creative director Sabato de Sarno has now started work, and will present his debut collection for the house in September 2023.
Louis Vuitton in Lake Maggiore
Less than a month after hosting its pre-fall show in Seoul, Louis Vuitton staged its first ever catwalk show in Italy, bringing the fashion pack to Lake Maggiore for cruise 2024.
Unfortunately, bad weather hindered the house's plans. The show had been set to take place in an outside setting on Isola Bella, a beautiful island in the middle of the lake. Instead, the show was staged inside on the mainland, where the likes of Emma Stone, Alicia Vikander and Cate Blanchett were in attendance.
Luckily though, models had walked the original location before the rain set in, so the collection was photographed on the intended catwalk, which was a clear inspiration for many of the pieces. It featured sculptural sleeves, aquatic colours and mermaid-inspired touches. Discover more about the collection here.
Alberta Ferretti in Rimini
Many designers have chosen to show in plenty of far-flung locations across the globe this season. But, this was not the case for Alberta Ferretti, who shunned a faraway setting and chose a place a little closer to home, and somewhere very close to her heart, the Italian city of Rimini, which is close to where she grew up.
Ferretti paid tribute to her hometown, and another very notable name to have come out of the area, the film director, Federico Fillini, with her cruise 2024 show. The catwalk was erected outside the Castle Sismondo, which is home to the Fellini museum, where locals were able to enjoy the show from their balconies and on the streets, while clips of Fellini films were projected onto the building.
"Fashion and cinema carry two different forms of expression, fashion responding to the needs of humans to express oneself, and cinema story tells, entertains, escapes," the brand explained in its show notes. "Today, Alberta Ferretti, who also hails from Romagna, celebrates both, Rimini and its most illustrious dreamer."
Dior in Mexico City
Dior hosted its cruise 2024 show in Mexico City, where the house paid tribute to one of the most famous artists to ever hail from the country: Frida Kahlo. “I first saw her work at an exhibition in Rome when I was a teenager, the first show I’d ever seen by a woman artist, and it made a lifelong impression,” creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri said backstage ahead of the show. “It really touched me deeply. Her work is so inspiring for women. What she did for her time was unbelievable.”
The show took place at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, which is where Kahlo studied, and where she met husband, Diego Rivera. In many ways, the show was a love letter to both Kahlo’s work, to feminism and to Mexico more generally. The clothes paid tribute to specific pieces (including a pink dress that Kahlo wore in one of her self-portraits) while there were other references to the way Kahlo played with gender boundaries (“She spoke about gender, about identity, which was incredible for her time. She spoke about everything we discuss today. She was pioneering”), and took inspiration from Mexican culture more generally, while the house also worked closely with local craftspeople.
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