Lake Como is better known for pioneering quiet luxury than indulging the style set with a fashion show. Until now. Yesterday (April 29) one of its most famous hotels, Villa d'Este, hosted Chanel's latest resort show; and today (April 30), they release a film of the whole thing.
The French luxury brand has descended onto Lombardy — a region more habitually synonymous with Loro Piana — to present its 2025/26 cruise collection. There are short taffeta dresses accented with flowing capes, tweed suits updated in yellow and orange hues to evoke the surrounding buildings, and cruise collection staples such as white trousers, backless jumpsuits, and pea coats.
Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel launched the first ever cruise collection in 1919, when she created a line of clothes inspired by her love of sailing. Twice a year in between the regular fashion seasons, she would launch more casual collections for those looking to relax by the beach while still wearing haute couture. Although this was discontinued after her death in 1971, the tradition was revived by designer Karl Lagerfeld, who worked as Chanel’s artistic director from 1983 until his own death in 2019. Under his tutelage, the resort show went to Saint Tropez, Venice, and even Cuba.
The mythical Villa d’Este marks a new chapter in the brand’s post-Lagerfeld history, with cruise collections sticking closer to European shores (last year’s show took place in Marseille). A building that has hosted princesses, sultans and tsars, d’Este’s history stretches back to 1568 when it was built as a private residence for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. It became a hotel in 1873 and was a summer favourite of film director Alfred Hitchcock, who produced his first motion picture on the grounds in 1925. In August, it will host another legend, Andrea Bocelli, in concert in the gardens.
Villa d’Este is perhaps the most emblematic example of Lake Como’s cosy relationship with stealth wealth: it is grand yet restrained, and oozes the same simple elegance that first made Chanel a hit. The brand debuted more than 100 years ago in Paris when its namesake designer decided to liberate women from the constraints of corsetry, pioneering a more seamless–and now emblematically French–way of dressing.
Located in the village of Cernobbio on the more fashionable side of Lake Como — think East Egg in The Great Gatsby — Villa d’Este plays host to the last Chanel collection designed entirely by the atelier. In October, incoming artistic director Mathieu Blazy (formerly of Bottega Veneta) will unveil his first collection for the house. This collection also mines inspiration from Villa d’Este’s water gardens, which are replete with oleanders, magnolias and camelias–also Coco Chanel’s favourite flower and one of the house’s recurring motifs.
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