The Cruise runway shows – which take place on the precipice of summer, running through late April, May and early June – are some of the most dramatic of the fashion calendar, with houses largely eschewing the typical style cities in favour of distant locales. And this season, which began with Chanel yesterday afternoon (28 April 2026) in Biarritz, France, looks to be the most talked-about in some time, largely thanks to a coterie of designers who will be making their debut in the medium – namely, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Jonathan Anderson at Dior, and Demna at Gucci. Each will be using the opportunity to further hone their vision for their respective powerhouses – after all, the Cruise shows, which often encompass transporting runway sets, one-of-a-kind ephemera and curated experiences for guests, are as much marketing opportunities as they are about the clothes themselves.
Interestingly, the majority are unfolding in the United States, including Louis Vuitton and Gucci in New York, and Dior in Los Angeles (the exact venues for the latter two have yet to be announced; Anderson has chosen LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for his Dior outing). The reason for the shift is likely in part an attempt to make inroads into what is seen to be a market with still-undiscovered potential (‘This is a concerted industry effort to show love and bring education to American consumers,’ Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Bernstein told WWD), while the importance of attendance by A-list celebrities – the majority of whom are based in the USA – might be another explanation.
Hermès will also present ‘Chapter 2’ of its A/W 2026 womenswear collection on 4 June 2026, in Los Angeles. Elsewhere, Max Mara will buck the trend by showing in Shanghai, China, on June 16, 2026.
Here, Wallpaper* picks the best of the Cruise 2027 runway shows, as they happen.
Chanel returns to its roots in Biarritz
Matthieu Blazy chose the seaside town of Biarritz, on France’s windswept western coastline, to present his first Cruise collection for Chanel. The locale, synonymous with a nostalgic glamour – the building of the Hôtel du Palais in 1855 as Empress Eugenie’s summer palace established it as a summer gathering spot for the rich and famous – was where Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel established her eponymous house, and presented her first collection. Held in a mirrored salon on the Biarritz coastline, Blazy said he chose the town for its feeling of freedom and escape. ‘Far from the Paris salon, Chanel found in Biarritz different ways of being and seeing, of movement and freedom,’ he said. ‘She made them her fashion pedestal. It is a place that offers the perfect balance between function and fiction. Among artists, workers, nobility, sailors and the natural world, everyone and everything shared the same stage, living together as a norm. All had a role to play.’
Indeed, these are the principles Blazy has mined during his tenure so far, his approach rooted in a mood of eclecticism and play, riffing on archetypes of dress (this was particularly true of his Métiers d’art show in New York, which saw him conjure a series of characters you might encounter on a New York subway). Blazy said he was thinking about the way Coco Chanel liberated the woman’s body with jersey and swimwear; here, a number of looks featured 1920s-style swimming caps and suits, or garments inspired by their proportions (some even came with thigh-high wader boots). Elsewhere, he moved between modes of dress: the black dress was cut with voluminous proportions and a dropped waistline, while swishy printed skirts, underlaid with fronds of tassels, were matched with half-zip Breton-striped sweaters. Tweeds, meanwhile, were bold and colourful, moving towards a closing duo of looks adorned with gleaming, scale-like paillettes (Blazy said they were an ode to another seaside figure, the ‘fictional mermaid’). Completing the look were some viral accessories, from enormous body-sized beach bags to ‘heel caps’, a series of ‘shoes’ which left the foot completely bare save for a flat back heel tied to the ankle with a bow.
The throughline was a mood of summertime liberation, even if the weather outside remained a resolute grey. On the collection notes, Coco Chanel was given the last word: ‘There is no beauty without freedom of the body.’ With this collection, Blazy was channelling a sartorial freedom of his own.
Stay tuned for coverage of the Cruise 2027 runway shows.