The new power of the Cruise Collections

It's never too early to think about Fashion Weeks, particularly in this period. There's already a runway atmosphere in the air thanks to the pre-fall 2016 shows. The most talked about up to now has been the Chanel Métiers d'Art show, which brought the Parisian house to Rome, the Eternal City.

But when and why have the pre-Collection come out?

A few decades back the pre-collections appeared to satisfy the wardrobe of consumers who went on vacation to coastal areas or exotic places during the winter months. So, in addiction to the two main ready-to-wear collections, fashion houses also offered a specific clothing line to those who needed summer garments out of season. Hence the name of Cruise or Resort collections, which recreate the “cruise holidays wardrobe” atmosphere.

The story has changed a bit: today pre-collections are also pre-fall, showed between November and December, and they only have a commercial purpose. This is not new, you could say. I agree, but I can assure you that pre-collections are the most obvious product of marketing and sale strategies you can imagine. 

Journalist Alexander Fury, while reflecting about Gucci's decision to set up its next Resort 2017 show in London, has concluded that pre-collections go “where the money is”. Bingo. It is no accident that London is exceeded only by Paris and New York in terms of high-brand shopping, while UK comes third (after America and China) in the luxury sales game. 

There is more. Chanel Cruise 2016 collection has been shown in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and the 2015 one in Dubai, the great metropolis of the United Arab Emirates. Dior has launched its Cruise 2016 at Pierre Cardin's Palais Bulles in Côte d'Azur, while the pre-fall 2015 has been shown in Tokyo. And so on.

It is clear that pre-collection shows are set up in strategic locations, where there's a high level of luxury shopping, in which clients are more likely to make purchases and, in short, where the money flow is. So, pre-collections indicate us which the richest trades are. In fact, these collections offer more "daily wearable" clothes and they are especially aimed at the consumer (not only at buyers and jounalists), because of their commercial nature.

As Italian journalist Angelo Flaccavento wrote: “The blender of pre-collections might knock people out”. Exactly. The wait for a runway show has disappeared, the presentation-consume times go faster than ever and seasonal limits no longer exist. Everything at once, and if this is in advance it's even better. All this aims to satisfy a globalised demand which is always hungry and filled with images that will become old after just a week of life. But, above all, this is for pleasing a certain God: Money.