The Tamesis
Every year from January to March, our screens—and, for the luckiest among us, our travel schedules—are inundated with fashion shows. Menswear and haute couture kicked off in Milan and Paris before New Yorkers jetted back home for the first round of women’s shows, and the international circuit resumed. Despite a brief respite from spring break and the annual Met Gala, the next thing you know, top editors, influencers and celebrities are all hopping on planes, sometimes fanning out to far corners of the world in search of resort collections, creating a mini, loosely defined season filled with cheerful renditions of iconic brand styles.
But what’s the point of a resort collection, or cruise as it’s sometimes called, beyond enviable Instagram-worthy travel? This is an age-old problem: new york times Back in 1989, she was thinking about “the most mysterious of all fashion seasons.”
The tradition dates back to the 20th century, when high-net-worth clients, often European, would add seasonally appropriate items to their wardrobes (often referred to as “beach pajamas”) before boarding ocean liners for their annual post-Christmas trip. Coco Chanel was an early profiteer in the coastal mall, launching jersey sportswear and opening its first boutiques in Deauville and Biarritz, where the brand will return tomorrow for its 2027 resort show – which you can follow here.
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, leisure travel became easier, expanding the window of opportunity for seasonal ready-to-wear. And there’s more: It’s a clever marketing trick to capitalize on the global embrace of fashionable holidays to promote “off-season” products that fill the shelves between autumn and summer collections.
