Cruise Collection Confusion

There is some collective confusion - even in fashion - about cruise or resort collections. The sensible question being, who take cruises anymore, and why do they justify a dedicated fashion collection?

To entice customers with the latest fashion has to offer, pre-collections (cruise/resort and pre-fall) are playing an increasingly important role in the business of fashion.

Originally an American solution to the problem of living in one season and travelling to another, cruise/resort now provides a seamless transition between seasons. It starts arriving in store in November when autumn/winter collections (in store August through November) look tired. Likewise, pre-fall collections arriving in June overlap with autumn/winter ready-to-wear.

Cruise and resort are synonymous. They refer back to a time before budget air travel when winter migration to warmer climates was a privilege of the wealthy. A relatively new concept in Europe, cruise/resort or pre-collections are quickly becoming big business. Fashion houses including Christian Dior, Chanel, Prada, and Gucci are just a few of the brands showing pre-season shows.

While they were originally a seasonal stop-gap, designers increasingly depend on the more accessible cruise/resort collections to give them more freedom to make ready-to-wear collections more conceptual or even verge on couture.

Alexander McQueen's autumn/winter show was a case in point. It was more a creative oeuvre than ready-to-wear. Corseted crinoline and antique Indian diadems earned him a standing ovation, while his pre-fall collection looks like the stylish older sister - chic yet more suited to the office than the fashion fantasy of an ermine coat or floor length gown in duchess satin.

The real-time availability of information on the latest trends straight from the catwalk via fashion websites like VOGUE.COM also means that those dedicated to fashion must wait months before the collections arrive in store. The pre-collections benefit from the excitement generated by the show and the growing demand for instant accessibility to the latest trends.

Customers are increasingly enjoying the instant gratification of seamless transitions from pre-collections to ready-to-wear, and there are rumours that additional Pre-Collection Fashion Weeks are imminent.

From beachwear for a season-hopping jet-set to a creative and commercially strategic transition between seasons, the pre-collections are playing a more important part in the seasonal collections. Cruise or resort may sound like remnants of the past, but are firmly fashion forward.