The Mediterranean coastline inspires Chanel’s Cruise collection
The collection features trousers cascading with ruffles, bouclé skirts which unbutton to the thigh, dresses in fine transparent lamé and shiny Bermuda shorts

From San Francisco to St Petersburg, Dubai to London, a host of cities were scheduled to play host to luxury labels’ extravagant Cruise show this spring. As Covid-19 caused global travel to cease, so brand’s halted their international fashion show plans. One such label was Chanel, which was scheduled to show its Resort 2021 show for the first time outside Paris since 2016, on the idyllic Italian island of Capri.
As the threat of lockdown pervaded, so creative director Virginie Viard expanded her horizons, nodding not just to Capri’s coastline, but other sparkling shorelines. ‘The collection, more generally, evolved towards a trip around the Mediterranean... The islands, the scent of the eucalyptus, the pink shades of the bougainvillea,’ she explains of an offering which also nods to the holiday wardrobes of Sixties actresses who favoured sunning themselves on the Italian and the French Riviera. Coco Chanel herself loved the Côte d’Azur. She chose to build her famed villa La Pausa in 1928 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Chanel’s 2019 high jewellery offering was also dedicated to its founder’s penchant for seafaring. ‘Flying Cloud’ nodded to the 1930s superyacht bestowed to her by the Duke of Westminster.
Chanel Cruise 2021.
Fashion has the power to transport us to far off destinations, and there’s ample escapism in Viard’s offering. Based on the idea of a wardrobe carried in a ‘little suitcase on wheels’ (perfect for pulling from a ferry from Naples), the collection features trousers cascading with ruffles, bouclé skirts which unbutton to the thigh, dresses in fine transparent lamé and shiny Bermuda shorts. To accompany the collection, Chanel celebrated the Mediterrranean skyline with a series of atmospheric landscape images, capturing Capri’s famed Blue Grotto, a sky illuminated by sunset tones and the verdant tones of bougainvillea. Close your eyes and you might just be able to smell them.
RELATED STORY
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Wallpaper* checks in at MACAM Hotel: a night at the museum
Portugal’s first hotel-museum is home to 600 pieces of modern and contemporary art and 64 rooms for the ultimate artistic immersion
By Mary Lussiana
-
This joyful Henri Matisse pottery collection is your new summer entertaining essential
After years at the helm of American ceramics company East Fork, the artist’s great-grandson is ready to embrace his family name
By Anna Fixsen
-
This knitwear collaboration is a playful exploration of the role of the fashion critic
Waste Yarn Project has collaborated with Wallpaper* contributing editor Dal Chodha on a sweater adorned with extracts from his 2020 book ‘Show Notes’, collated while reviewing the menswear shows for Wallpaper*
By Zoe Whitfield
-
The 3D-printed biobased opticals inspired by French cinema
Three new sustainable styles draw on the sultry French Riviera setting of Schneider’s 1969 thriller La Piscine
By Dal Chodha
-
Falke’s high end hosiery balances tradition and modernity
By Morgane Nyfeler
-
Architecturally-aligned bag brands for raising up your wardrobe
The Wallpaper* edit of sculpturally sublime emerging bag brands – S. Joon, Osoi, Numen and Yuzefi
By Josefin Forsberg
-
Wicker bags weaving style magic for summer
We’ll soon be embarking into our sun-drenched summer destinations, so it’s natural we’re craving stylish, beach-ready pieces
By Morgane Nyfeler
-
Hide time: Church’s launches inaugural leather goods collection
By Laura Hawkins
-
Blue print: Fontana Milano 1915’s ‘A’ bag collaboration with Wallpaper*
By Jack Moss
-
Singapore bling: the handcrafted splendour of Llora's handbag designs
By Daven Wu
-
Pure luck: the hidden charms of Heimat’s handwoven bags
By TF Chan