AS Cruise Collections are gaining momentum, many of us are still trying to understand the meaning of the so-called Cruise Fashion and how they came about.
For some time now, haute couture brands would send clothes to fill the shelves between the winter sales and the spring/summer deliveries.
Some wealthy customers privileged to go on tropical holidays during the winter also needed warm weather clothes, so designers started providing them with summer clothes.
Furthermore, the growing consumer’s demand for new clothes, more often, has led the highly successful Zara and Mango retail brands to bring in new garments in their worldwide outlets on a constant basis.
The world of fashion has become a victim of the consumer’s short attention span and the rise of fast fashion. Young customers, especially, are always hungry for something new.
Moreover, the global shift in weather conditions also means that designers have to re-think their collections and their delivery dates. In some countries it is now too warm to wear a winter coat in November.
Consequently, big names such as Prada, Gucci, Alberta Ferretti and Dior to name but a few are following suit by making the Cruise Collections the most important fashion event after the autumn/winter collections and before the spring/summer collections.
Cruise benefits from a long shelf-life Nov/Dec to June and over the years and has consequently generated most of the big brands’ spring sales. The growing success of Cruise fashion has pressured an increasing number of brands to stage their own Cruise Collection shows.
Because Cruise fashion goes beyond the concept of season, big names hold their shows at different times ranging from October to June.
Dior’s Cruise fashion was presented in Dubai last October while Gucci will present its Cruise in June.
The money which is spent for setting up these Cruise Fashion shows suggests brands are hopeful that customers will keep on buying Cruise garments.
Besides their long shelf life, Cruise clothes have been successful because, unlike traditional haute couture fashion, they are not as sophisticated and complicated.
Galliano is always overtly creative, and this showed in his latest Cruise collection featuring long print coats over tight brocade trousers but on the whole this collection offers more outfits that are easy to wear.
The wearability factor is a vital key to a collection’s commercial success and that is one of the main reasons why big brands are now concentrating so much on Cruise fashion.
The success behind the Cruise concept is benefiting the stores which are stocked with a constant influx of merchandise and this can only please today’s customers who are now accustomed to fast fashion.