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 on 28 April, 2026 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 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.
Louis Vuitton time travels at New York’s Frick Collection
‘A tale of two cities,’ is how Nicolas Ghesquière described his latest Cruise collection for Louis Vuitton, which unfolded amid the recently renovated galleries of the Frick Collection on New York’s Upper East Side (as such, it was the second New York Cruise show in the last seven days, with Gucci’s taking place in Times Square the weekend prior). Those two cities were Paris and New York, the latter inspiring a collection which sought to capture the American metropolis’ ‘beautiful contradictions, [its] perfect differences... multiple identities, divergent cultures... uptown and downtown, past and future.’
The collection’s guiding force was Keith Haring, whose works appeared on garments and elsewhere lent the collection a graphic, 1980s-inflected sensibility. This had begun with the discovery of a 1930 Louis Vuitton suitcase owned by the artist – daubed with his Sharpie-drawn motifs – which here walked the runway as part of the opening look (Haring had gifted it to a roommate; Louis Vuitton recently acquired it in auction). Other references were the Gilded Age (the Frick Collection building hails from the era), its frilled gowns abstracted into colourful ruffled tops and collars, while other garments reimagined archetypal American garments and the like– denim, jersey, workwear dungarees – through the filter of Louis Vuitton’s superlative Parisian savoir-faire, and Ghesquière’s own postmodern lens.
Gucci takes over Times Square, New York
Guests to Demna’s first Cruise show for Gucci (the Georgian designer held his runway debut for the Italian house in February) received a golden key in lieu of a traditional invite, a recreation of those needed by VIP clients to access the Gucci Galleria, an exclusive members-only space once hidden above the Gucci flagship on Fifth Avenue. It was a nod to New York’s importance to the house: it was here, in 1953, that Gucci opened its first store outside of Italy, and the label – which was reinvigorated in the 1990s by American designer Tom Ford – has been pretty much ubiquitous on the city’s streets since, from the Uptown denizens of Park Avenue to those wielding knock-offs from Canal Street.
With this first Cruise show, Demna sought to replicate this cross-section of New York life, conjuring a cast of the city’s archetypes – from backpack-wearing stockbrokers to lunching ladies wrapped in furs, alongside skaters, party girls and office workers – who strode through perhaps New York’s most famous intersection, Times Square. In a truly impressive feat, its various screens went momentarily black before flaring into life with a series of Gucci ads, both real and imagined, while a starry cast included Paris Hilton, Emily Ratajkowski and Tom Brady. Demna said that the collection was one of ‘pragmatic, wearable pieces that are unmistakably Gucci’ – which included some super-desirable accessories, from tech-y backpacks to severe, knife-point boots with Gucci’s horsebit motif on the ‘stirrup’ – though there was also a more dramatic flair, like the body-swaddling puffa ‘stoles’ or a croc-scale sequin gown, worn by model Anok Yai. In Demna’s words? ‘GucciCore – a plurality of styles that intersect like the streets of the city’.
Dior holds a Hollywood epic in Los Angeles
Jonathan Anderson chose Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), to stage his first Cruise show for Dior. Presented amid a show set scattered by vintage Cadillac cars – like those you might find in a 1950s drive-through cinema – the collection paid homage to the perennial allure of Hollywood, one which had also seduced the house’s namesake couturier (Christian Dior would outfit cinematic legends, from Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe to Elizabeth Taylor, both on and off the screen). It led to a collection which mined both California’s landscapes – the state’s poppy was a recurring motif – and the feeling of escapism that Hollywood has long captured, for inspiration.
‘Christian Dior understood how important the idea of “the dream” was for people after the war, as a form of escapism,’ said Anderson in the collection notes, which were presented in the form of a fantasy film script. ‘We started with this idea of dressing up, dressing up in daytime, dressing up in evening – we just wanted a collection that is a bit fun,’ he elaborated in a preview before the show. Cue plenty of sequins, hyper-real floral adornment and flashes of vivid red, as well as feathered headpieces by Philip Treacy, which read ‘Dior’ as well as slogans like ‘Buzz’ and ‘Star’ (they were based on a design originally created for Isabella Blow). The show also presented men’s and women’s collections simultaneously – a first for the house – with the former featuring a collaboration with American artist Ed Ruscha, whose typographic works adorned a series of shirts.
READ: Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior Cruise show was a Hollywood epic
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.