Season of Magical Thinking

More than ever before, the big fashion houses show with their cruise collections what makes them special - and with what attitude they encounter the world

Text: Petra Winter

With Dior in Marrakesh

The couture house took its guests into a fashion fairy tale with opulent backdrops.

Breathtaking: the staging in the el-Badi Palace in the heart of the Medina

Already the start of this journey resembled an ultra-glamorous ride on a flying fashion carpet. The guests were shuttled from Paris to Marrakech with their own Dior plane to experience the most beautiful sides of the Moroccan royal city from then on: dinner lit with 1001 candles in the Bahia Palace, lunches under palm trees in the private residence "Villa Addi Ou Addi", the highlight of the evening of the show in the area of the el-Badi Palace, which is usually an unadorned inner courtyard with a moat, but that evening shone in the torchlight. The decoration, the fabrics of the divans, the entire ceramic tableware had been designed by the African and exclusively female creative laboratory Sumano. Every single look by designer Maria Grazia Chiuri was also dreamlike. The central theme was the fusion of European and African culture. The so typical wax prints and the French Toile-de-Jouy prints resulted in exciting combinations and are at the same time the condensation of various realities and epochs.

Melting Pot of cultures: The collection lives from African, Mediterranean and Western European influences.

With Chanel in Paris

The French celebrate a double departure with a Train-Station scenery in the Grand Palais.

New Look: The new head designer at Chanel Virginie Viard combines the spirit and history of the times with a sensitive hand.

It is her first own show, which Virginie Viard presents with the Croisière, after taking over from Karl Lagerfeld in March. She chose the symbolism of transition and at the same time the intimacy of departure and arrival with a backdrop converted into a Beaux-Art railway station. What she emerges from the shadow of the master - the two have been working together since 1987 with interruptions - and how she interprets the modern woman in motion, could be seen wonderfully in her opening locomotives (see photo above). We see women whose freedom is not restricted by overly tight or short skirts that prefer toughness and uncomplicated materials that are both feminine (ruffles, ribbons) and bullshit-free. In the spirit of the founder Gabrielle Chanel, who was a regular guest in the luxurious Train Bleu in the 1920s, exciting artist friends like Sergei Djagilew and Pablo Picasso gathered around her.

Recycle: the luxury variant of a returnable water bottle with matching bag; all eyes on the details: Accessories interpret the codes of the house: logo, pearls, bouclé, matelassé quilting pattern. Very Chanel-like.

With Vuitton in New York

Amazons and superheroes: Nicolas Ghesquière shows strong women in an architectural gem

Despite their delicate statures, these models have nothing fragile about them. They don't stalk, but march resolutely and with a grim look over the runway at New York's JFK airport. "Don't mess with me" is the message. Ghesquière, known for his architectural interest, chose the recently renovated former TWA Flight Center for this show, which looks a bit like the backdrop for a superhero movie.

The newly renovated TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport, built by Eero Saarinen, was opened to the public for the first time for the show.

Eero Saarinen had built it in 1962 as a memorial to the airline that had long since passed away. Superheroines such as Catwoman are also appropriately recalled in the looks. Knife-edge trousers, combat boots, jackets and capes that bring the cross and shoulders into focus and with which you can succeed on the rooftops of Gotham City just as you can in the night-shady clubs of the 80s era. In any case, the Vuitton woman leaves a strong impression: she is one who conquers the world and doesn't wait to be trusted.

New York symbolism such as the Chrysler Building inspired the redesign of the Vuitton classic handbags.

Star Mania: In the front row the Vuitton aficionadas Emma Stone, Jennifer Connelly, Julianne Moore and Léa Seydoux

With Armani in Tokio

A man who loves clear lines and silence: Giorgio Armani shows his Cruise for the first time with a show

What inspires him about the country is the respect for tradition with an open-mindedness towards modernity. His credo is to be less trend-oriented and more concerned with further developing his own style codes. This is visible in cruises for men and women: flowing, vertical silhouettes; clean tailoring; soft shoulders; washed silk and the mutual inspiring influence of men on female fashion and vice versa.

Eating with chopsticks, that's what he learned from his friend Karl Lagerfeld, the Italian designer smiles as he receives us backstage for a conversation before his show at the Tokyo National Museum. He loves the simplicity and sophistication of Japanese aesthetics, he explains, which is why he is here to celebrate this special moment. He combines his first cruise show with the reopening of the renovated 56-meter-high Ginza Tower, which houses the entire Armani world. The 85-year-old is a superstar in Japan. Fans cry when they get closer to their idol. "The Japanese are more Armani than Armani," he smiles. What can the world learn from Japan? "Courtesy. Today, people don't even greet each other sensibly anymore. And fashionable? "Know your limits from what you wear. Take a closer look in the mirror," he advises. With this elegant cruise, he has also come a little closer to his life's goal of making women ever more beautiful.