Luchino Visconti’s spirit lingered in sweeping ivory looks, linking Chanel history with Como lore.
Lake Como rarely needs help with atmosphere, yet Chanel managed to add a new layer. For its Cruise 2025/26 presentation the house settled at Villa d’Este, the storied hotel whose terraced gardens and ochre-washed façade have sheltered artists and screen legends for generations. The location’s leisurely pace shaped a collection that treated resort dressing not as a category but a state of mind—half holiday wardrobe, half ballroom fantasy.
Virginie Viard’s studio leaned into the rituals of grand-hotel life. Pastel taffeta party dresses—peach, rose, pale sky—flitted down the water-level runway like reflections off the lake. Tweed suiting picked up the villa’s sunset shades, while Sofia Coppola’s teaser film amplified the hush before cocktail hour.
Evening took a livelier turn. One model appeared in feather-light tweed “pyjamas” studded with multicoloured sequins, the sparkle answering soft disco beats. She was followed by a gold lurex damask trouser suit and a black set—blouse and flared trousers—covered, every inch, in paillette shine. A backless lamé jumpsuit striped in pink and orange, hidden beneath a floor-length cape, nodded to the house archive yet felt made for a late-night ferry across the water.
Daywear came with cinematic flair. A short black bustier dress gained drama from an airy cape, while an ivory blouse—its braid traced in beads and rhinestones—paired with wide white taffeta trousers suggested terrace breakfasts stretching into noon. One couldn’t ignore the ghost of Luchino Visconti, a Chanel friend and local resident; his sense of theatrical gesture hovered over an ivory suit and sweeping taffeta ball gown.
Garden walks supplied further material. Lacework echoed magnolia and wisteria, landing as delicate motifs on a black skirt suit and a flared dress striped with chiffon flowers. A white ensemble—cropped trousers and Spencer jacket—brought the floral study into full sunlight.
Maritime codes, central to any Chanel cruise chapter, surfaced in crisp white straight-cut trousers, a pea-coat the shade of strawberry ice cream, and a blue-and-white striped jersey trouser suit. Knit cardigans, dresses and polo tops bore bright horizontal bands, as if lifted from beach umbrellas along the Lario shore.
Accessories doubled down on screen-sirene attitude: ropes of pearls, minaudières sized for a room key and a lipstick, pool-size totes, patent mules, and silk foulards tied wherever suited—hair, wrist, ankle. Long gloves and black sunglasses completed the “seen at the landing stage” mood.
Comfort never ceded ground to spectacle; instead Chanel fused both, echoing the easy glamour that has drawn visitors to Lake Como since the Renaissance. In the end, Villa d’Este felt less like a backdrop and more like a long-time collaborator—another reminder that at Chanel the place is never mere scenery, it is part of the story.
