17 Unforgettable Resort Shows, Chosen by Our Editors
In the Before times, May was a month reserved for far flung international travel. The resort season, which had existed for decades, took on a new life in 2007, when Chanel brought its gladiator sandals and twinsets to New York’s Grand Central Station. That event kickstarted a trend for elaborate destination shows staged from late April through early June. Since then, our editors have traveled to Havana, Cuba; Shanghai, China; Marrakech, Morocco; Los Angeles, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Chantilly, France; and dozens of locations in between.
The idea of a singular brand spectacular, staged over a couple of days for a select group of editors, buyers, and clients has potential to be the fashion show model of the future. If organized weeks that stretch on for months become impossible—or at least unlikely—due to Covid-19, brands with the financial capability could see results from setting their own schedules and making their own rules outside of fashion capitals. Saint Laurent has already hinted at this with its declaration of operating off-season for the rest of 2020.
But the resort season has another reality. For those of us that have never sunk into a business class seat for a long haul flight to a destination show, resort means one-on-one appointments with designers to see intentional, practical ready-to-wear collections. We take the elevator to Joseph Altuzarra’s studio near our office at 1 World Trade Center or run to the ACE train to the Garment District to catch up with Thom Browne. Even more of our staff—and the world—wait with bated breath for lookbook pictures to be uploaded to Vogue Runway to see the latest from London, Milan, Paris, and beyond. These images are generally quite pared down when compared to what the larger resort spectacles have to offer: A model standing against a white backdrop or shot on the street. Still, they resonate —just look at how many editors chose Phoebe Philo’s Céline lookbooks as their “favorite” resort collections here. This streamlined production of lookbooks has potential to be fashion’s other future, a simpler, to-the-point way of showing clothing.
Here, our editors sound off the shows that left big impressions. Consider them a guide for fashion’s divergent future.
Photo: Courtesy1/17Chanel Resort 2017
Riding in a cavalcade of pastel-colored open-top classic cars through the streets of Havana to the Chanel show on May 4, 2016—of all the memories of the bygone era of resort summertime fashion travels, nothing can beat that. Karl Lagerfeld was the first to come up with the idea of transporting people to the site of his Chanel inspirations, opening the window of extravagant competition for long distance venues between major houses which closed abruptly in 2019. This one was one of those skin-prickling occasions when you already foresaw a time when you’d be telling your granddaughters where you were that day, and why, and they’d look at you agape, amazed, aghast: What, granny, fashion companies in the 2010s actually air-lifted hundreds of people all over the world, just for a single show?
Yes it did, children. Nevertheless, should I live that long, this is an I-was-there story I’ll tell, even while confessing to the carbon-emitting decadence of the late ‘experiential’ fashion culture. There will be the panama hats and the double-entendre French-slash-Che Guevara berets to be discussed, the memories of what it was like to see models dancing in the open air along the Paseo del Prado in their fragile but immutably Chanel-by-Karl organza dresses and black and white tailoring.
Pretty sure young women’s eyes in 2045 won’t need schooling in the desirability of any of that.
But there’s another, bigger moral to be drawn from recording this moment, a fragment of history marking the thawing of US relations with Cuba negotiated by President Barack Obama. A cruise ship from the United States had sailed into Havana the day before, the first in nearly 40 years, to a spontaneous welcome from residents. A palpable atmosphere of happiness and reconciliation abounded. In 2020, President Trump is again rattling sabres at Cuba. That fleeting chapter—into which this Chanel celebration of fashion with its diplomatic optimism is written—is now closed. Still: history is long. One day, I hope to be explaining what the long-gone President Trump was to my grandchildren, too.— Sarah Mower, Vogue Chief Critic
Photo: Courtesy2/17Louis Vuitton Resort 2018
Nicolas Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton destination shows reveal his abiding interest in architecture—never more so than resort 2018, when he transported us to I. M. Pei’s Miho Museum in the forested outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. Pei himself called it Shangri-La, and he had a point; accessing the Miho requires walking through a tunnel portal drilled into a mountain. And that was following an hour’s drive deep into the Japan countryside and, of course, a flight across the Pacific. Even then, in the “before time,” I understood it was a once-in-lifetime experience. Ghesquière’s utopia was peopled with fierce beauties in samurai jackets and sequined dresses featuring Kansai Yamamoto designs. The elusive Yamamoto sat in the front row and also contributed the collection’s Kabuki-eyed bags and he too seemed stunned by the surreality of it all. What a trip.—Nicole Phelps, Vogue Runway Director
Photo: Courtesy3/17Christian Dior Resort 2020
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Christian Dior resort show was held at dusk at the Palais Badi in Marrakech, bonfires flickering in the middle distance. A hawk flew overhead just before it started, finally settling on top of a pillar to get a (sorry!) bird’s eye view of the proceedings. It wasn’t just the beautiful workmanship that let Chiuri’s collection soar as high. It was also down to the way she entered into thoughtful and respectful collaborations with the likes of Abidjan waxed cotton studio Uniwax, artist Mickaelene Thomas, and designers Monsieur Pathe’O and Grace Wales Bonner, using the platform afforded by Dior to celebrate their work. That evening was a reminder that the spotlight is never diminished because it’s shared.—Mark Holgate, Fashion News Director
Photo: Courtesy4/17Chanel Resort 2013
At the risk of sounding overly privileged, there is a world of difference between booking a ticket to Versailles as a tourist and receiving an invitation to Versailles as a guest of Chanel. I remember the late daylight was so golden that the great expanse of château appeared to be glowing. It occurred to me that we were on the grounds of le Roi-Soleil, the Sun King, Louis XIV; and now, on this gorgeous evening in May, it was King Karl who reigned. Ironically, one week earlier, France elected a socialist president, François Hollande; which, for those of us who delighted in Lagerfeld’s zeitgeist-y powers, introduced a fascinating twist to what might have been a lavish lineup. And yet, against the backdrop of a restored winter grove where a central fountain splashed crystalline water, we discovered a cruise collection that felt punk and posh in equal measure. For all the decorative winks to 17th and 18th century court attire, the clothes themselves were light and frothy—denim ensembles in Wedgwood blue and pastels tweeds that bridged Le Petit Trianon with 1980s Palm Beach. The savoir-faire was on full display, but so were the lustrous sneakers. There were double C beauty marks placed like teardrop tattoos and wigs that leaned more anime than Marie Antoinette. All this set to Michel Gaubert’s audacious music statement based around M.I.A.’s Bad Girls. The vibe was frivolous yet progressive—an unforgettable mix. As my first resort show, it set the bar ultra-high. As a recent expat (I had moved to Paris just eight months earlier), I felt as though this was the ultimate Francophile fashion dream.—Amy Verner, Vogue Contributor
Photo: Courtesy5/17Gucci Resort 2019
I ll never forget sitting on the edge of a burning runway at the Gucci resort 2019 runway show. The show setting was the Promenade Des Alyscamps, an ancient Roman cemetery in Arles, France, lit up by candelabras. The models, wearing beautiful Victorian lace dresses and layers of gothic crosses, snaked their way around the outdoor space. It was captivating.
The entertainment didn’t stop there. After the show ended and guests moved on to cocktails, Elton John came out to perform a set that had the whole audience on their feet. It was a night to remember!—Rickie de Sole, Executive Fashion Director
