Fashion's cruise shows are going where the money is

Fashion houses claim to theme their cruises around the creative -a Tokyo venue for a Manga-inspired Dior show oe California for Vuitton's take on Americana

It's interesting to chart the ever-peripatetic cruise shows as indications of current retail climates

Gucci's 2017 cruise show won't take much cruising – at least, not for British press. The innately Italian house, founded in Florence, based in Milan and helmed by the Rome-born Alessandro Michele, has chosen to present its next pre-spring collection in London, with the show slated for the middle of next year.

Why London? Why not. “London is hot” said François-Henri Pinault back in 2013, after buying a majority stake in Christopher Kane's business. He has also made English the official language of Kering (the Pinault family own 40 per cent of said company through their Artémis Group). More telling than designer investments and the lingo, though, is the matter of cold, hard cash. According to Bain & Company, London's appetite for luxury is exceeded only by that of Paris or New York, while the UK as a whole comes third after America and China in the luxury-sales stakes, much the result of international tourism. In an apt, if rather unpleasant, illustration of that lust for luxe, earlier this month Gucci's Sloane Street store was ram-raided, with thieves stealing up to £100,000-worth of goods. They focused their attention on Gucci's desirable new Dionysus handbag, a retail hit since Michele introduced it in his debut womenswear show in February.

It's interesting to chart the ever-peripatetic cruise shows as indications of current retail climates. They're going where the money is – and where the clients are, too. The audiences of these shows are packed primarily with them, rather than with press or celebrities – real women who really wear these clothes, and spend really, really high amounts to do so. They're calling the shots: that's why fashion houses are ferrying themselves to New York or California – or even Tokyo. Dior showed there last December, and while a pamphlet detailed stuff such as Dior's creation of dresses for Princess Michiko, or for Margot Fonteyn's 1954 performance of Madame Butterfly, I suspect it was the creation of dresses for a lucrative seam of current Dior clients that motivated the move. They were out in force in Tokyo's audience of 1,400.

It's worth noting that Dior's first cruise show since 2008 was in Monte Carlo in 2013; Louis Vuitton also showed there last year. Fashion houses claim to theme their cruises around the creative – a Tokyo venue for a Manga-inspired Dior show, California for Vuitton's take on Americana. The pint-sized principality of Monaco is, to be fair, not especially rich in inspiration. It's cash-rich, though, built around multiple casinos (where you make money, in theory) and even more multiple boutiques (where you spend it, again in theory). I'm not expecting beefeaters on Gucci's cruise catwalk: London is evidently looked on with the same eyes as Monaco. And said eyes have pound signs flashing in them.