Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 runway shows

The Cruise runway shows offer the fashion calendar’s most transporting spectacle: a scattered two-month-long schedule which sees powerhouses like Chanel, Gucci and Dior decamp to a series of exotic, picturesque locales to present their latest Resort collections. Previous locations have spanned Oscar Niemeyer’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Niterói in Rio de Janeiro (Louis Vuitton), a Scottish castle (Dior), and the streets of Cuba (Chanel).

This year, Italy has proved to be the destination of choice, with Chanel, Gucci, Max Mara and Dior all showing in locations across the country. Chanel opened proceedings with a waterside show at Lake Como in late April; Gucci showed in its home city of Florence earlier this month; Dior headed to the 18th-century Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome; while Max Mara in Naples will conclude the season. Elsewhere, Louis Vuitton also remained in Europe, with Nicolas Ghesquière showing a theatrical Cruise collection at the historic Palais de Papes in Avignon, France, the former papal seat, last week.

Here, Wallpaper* picks the best of the Cruise 2026 shows, as they happen.

Dior, Rome

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest Cruise show represented something of a homecoming for the Italian designer: choosing the 18th-century Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome as a location, it was her first time showing with Dior in the city where she was born and raised (and, indeed, spent a large part of her career, having previously worked at Roman fashion houses Fendi and Valentino). Unfolding in the villa’s gardens, guests had been instructed to dress in white (for women) or black (for men), as if attending a ball, while a brief onset of rain just before the show’s start only added atmosphere to what was a theatrical, beguiling collection from the designer.

An ode, of sorts, to her home city and its dress codes, inspirations spanned Renaissance gowns and classical statuary, mid-century Cinecittà glamour and the ecclesiastical vestments of the Vatican (cue hooded gowns, drapes of deep red velvet and the like). Chiuri said that the wide-ranging influences were in part inspired by the term ‘La bella confusione’ (‘beautiful confusion’) – a potential title for Federico Fellini’s 8½ floated by Italian screenwriter Ennio Flaiano – though despite the heady mix of references, Chiuri struck a tone of serenity and romance which has run through her tenure. She likened the collection’s illusory feel to ‘daydreaming’, a ‘magical realism’ – in the evening light, models looked almost like spectral apparitions wandering through rain-dampened gardens – ‘reconstructing the characters, landscapes, stories, and mythology of Rome, in [my] own unique way’.

Louis Vuitton, Avignon

Nicolas Ghesquière described Avignon as a ‘cradle of culture’, choosing the historic French city as the site of his latest Cruise show. Specifically, the dramatic Palais des Papes – a Gothic palace that once served as the papal seat – where the city’s annual theatre festival is held. True to his tenure at the house, which has been defined by postmodern shifts between time and place, the building’s central courtyard was the site of an intervention by British set designer Es Devlin, seeing rows of empty theatre seats rise up the space, populated by the models who then wove their way down onto the illuminated runway, where guests watched on from wooden seating reminiscent of church pews.

It set the scene for a collection that Ghesquière said was about theatre and costume: the ‘performative aspect of clothing, its inherent artistic value, its narrative force, and the emotional power it unleashes.’ A medieval inspiration ran throughout – albeit in the designer’s coolly futuristic style – in rich brocade jackets trimmed with flourishes of shearling, leg of mutton sleeves, and billowing shirts and ruffles. But it was experiments in surface texture that were most striking: bejewelled boots, sliced away at the toe, were adorned with mineral-like gems, a blouse was crafted from delicate threads of silver chains, while rich brocades and jacquards recalled the muralled interiors of the Palais de Papes.

‘I was very interested in clothes for the stage that are so influential in fashion in general, through musicians, actors, [and] dancers,’ said Ghesquière. ‘It’s something very collective and very inspiring.’

Gucci, Florence

Despite being between creative directors, Gucci forged on with its annual Cruise show, transporting attendees to Florence, the Italian city where Guccio Gucci founded the house in 1921 (new creative director Demna, who replaces Sabato De Sarno, will not begin his tenure until later this year). ‘Gucci Is Florence, Florence Is Gucci,’ was the title of the collection, which was revealed at Palazzo Settimanni, a 15th-century building on the left bank of the Arno River, which the house acquired in 1953. Then a production site for the house’s leather goods, it is now a sprawling archive – a ‘time machine,’ as Gucci described yesterday evening, backdropping a collection by the in-house team which doubled down on house codes and served up a dose of amped-up Italian glamour. Nostalgic graphic motifs recalled those found on Gucci’s silk scarves, while the double-G motif – an emblem which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year – appeared across glimmering hosiery. Elsewhere, boldly-hued faux furs, reminiscent of the house’s A/W 2025 collection shown earlier this year in Milan, appeared throughout, here teamed with aviator sunglasses, lace bodysuits, and wide-shouldered pussybow dresses. To close the show, models walked out of the Palazzo and into Florence’s magical early evening light – a symbolic close of one chapter, ready for the opening of the next. ‘The house entering the street, once more absorbed back into the city for the beginning of a new journey,’ read the collection’s accompanying notes. ‘Where, as always, Gucci is Florence, and Florence is Gucci.’

Chanel, Lake Como

Chanel selected Lake Como in northern Italy, the perennial playground of the rich and famous, for its first Cruise show since the departure of Virginie Viard (next year it will be in the hands of recently appointed creative director Matthieu Blazy, who will host his debut this September at Paris Fashion Week). Unfolding at Villa D’Este – a palatial hotel on the lake’s shores – the en terrace runway show saw the house’s ‘Creation Studio’ channel an insouciant ease befitting the luxurious surrounds. Think: off-duty movie star padding through the hotel’s covered terrace (memorable patrons of Villa D’Este include Elizabeth Taylor and Greta Garbo).

As such, the collection featured silk made-in-Como headscarves, dark sunglasses and a white tweed coat which coyly referenced a hotel robe, while a disco glamour emerged in ruffled pastel-coloured dresses, opera gloves and lamé capes. Elsewhere, typical playful – and no doubt highly collectable – accessories included gelato-tub shaped handbags, chain-handle beach bags and flower-adorned sunhats, no doubt an appeal to the house’s exclusive-hungry customers, many of whom were in attendance. Other guests included Keira Knightley and The White Lotus’ Sarah Catherine Hook (had a previous series not taken place in Italy, Villa D’Este would be a fitting White Lotus backdrop), while Sofia Coppola, who created a short film for the occasion, also watched on from the front row.

Stay tuned for more from the Cruise 2026 season.