Locations are key to showcasing a concept accurately, enhancing the power of the garments, elevating their interaction with the space and developing and deepening the narrative behind the clothes. We are used to great venues, some extremely luxurious and elegant, others raw, dirty and full of the most pure human essence; however, nothing could ever compete with the greatness of sceneries that are surrounded by the beauty of nature or that sometimes are nature themselves. With cruise shows on the rise in recent years and visionary minds that have given us unbelievable fashion postcards many seasons ago, we are looking back to some of the best fashion shows staged outdoors.
Jacquemus SS20 - Provence, Valensole Lavender Fields
There are shows that feel like a dream, and then there are those that are the dream. For Spring/Summer 2020, Simon Porte Jacquemus returned to his native South of France and carved a runway into the lavender fields of Valensole. The purple rows stretched endlessly in both directions, slicing the landscape into surreal geometry, like something David Hockney might’ve dreamt of if he had grown up near Marseille. The models walking among the endless horizon might be one of the most remembered fashion visuals from the last years.
The collection, celebrating the label’s 10th anniversary, moved between rustic sensuality and hyperreal optimism. Gauzy shirt-dresses, linen tailoring, pastel suiting, and sculptural accessories echoed the colours of the land Jacquemus grew in, using the garments as a canvas to showcase the beauty of the shades of the countryside.
Saint Laurent Men's SS23 - Marrakech, Agafay desert
Held in the Agafay desert on the outskirts of Marrakesh, Saint Laurent’s men’s Spring/Summer 2023 show unfolded like a mirage at dusk. Despite the unforgiving and unexpected nature of the desert, the staging was as precise as if the show took place in the usual Paris locations. A ring of lights encircling a watery runway, soft sand folding into night, Anthony Vaccarello invoked Yves' Moroccan years, not necessarily with nostalgia here, but more like looking forward.
Vaccarello's tailoring veered into the sharp and cinematic elegance he's already a master at: louche trousers, sheer blouses, and dramatic outerwear that billowed with the breeze. The clothes fit right with the surroundings, floating and rippling whisper. Marrakesh meant something special for Yves back then, and this show proved how that bond will be everlasting.
Dior Cruise 2022 - Athens, Panathenaic Stadium
On the grounds of the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Maria Grazia Chiuri—always committed to finding the best locations around the world—staged a show that leaned into lineage, though not in the way one might expect. Rather than indulging in classical clichés, the Dior Cruise 2022 collection asked how heritage holds up until today and how the ruins and glories of the past could inform a new kind of legacy. The stadium, built of white marble, pulsed under floodlights as models charged across the track, turning the site of ancient athleticism into an open-air arena for contemporary femininity.
Chiuri’s silhouettes took cues from Greek drapery but also from sport, two elements tightly bonded: tailored jackets cut with the ease of windbreakers, embroidered bodices paired with sneakers, and sheer kilts layered over cycling shorts. With her usual contrasts and direct references, Chiuri established a dialogue between the motion of the bodies and the monumentality of the location, a reminder that legacy doesn’t have to be frozen in marble.
Fendi S/S 2008 - Great Wall of China
No fashion show had ever claimed a structure as loaded or logistically improbable as the Great Wall of China until Karl Lagerfeld decided to stage Fendi’s Spring/Summer 2008 spectacle across its ancient stones. Held at twilight, the show developed along the wall like a centuries-old procession, with the spotlights drawing silhouettes against the endless millenary structure. It was performative excess in the way only Lagerfeld could engineer: culturally charged, technically extreme, and seductively imposing.
The clothes blended futurism with Asian ornamentation, with lacquered surfaces and flowing silks layered over stiff tailoring. Models descended the incline as if walking a line between past dynasties and future empires. The background is probably the most breathtaking scene fashion has seen. The Wall became a metaphor for Lagerfeld's own ambitions: global, spectacular, and willing to take his vision anywhere.
Louis Vuitton Cruise 2024 - Italy, Isola Bella
On the private island of Isola Bella, floating just off the shores of Lake Maggiore, Nicolas Ghesquière staged a show that felt like time no longer mattered and the usual reality transformed into a fairytale one. Guests crossed the water to reach the 17th-century Borromeo Palace, where baroque statues and polished gardens whispered of ghosts, and then entered a collection built on futuristic silhouettes and aquatic myths. The location was a completely otherworldly terrain between land and water, ideal to showcase a Ghesquière collection, always full of hybrids and contrasts.
The designer pushed further into sculptural fantasy: iridescent fabrics, oversized sleeves, and exaggerated ruffles that clung like seafoam to the body. Some garments evoked crustacean shells; others glimmered like siren armour. Isola Bella served as a siren, entrancing us, and a setting where the clothes emerged from the water and blended with the fantasy.
Chanel Cruise 2013 - Palace of Versailles
Two Lagerfeld moments on this list make sense; after all, he was the master of location. When Karl Lagerfeld returned to Versailles for Chanel’s 2013 Cruise show, it wasn’t to pay homage but to stage a playful takeover. The palace courtyard became a candy-coloured stage, its fountains flickering behind models who floated in powdered wigs and pastel punk. The collection slipped through time without reverence, twisting Marie Antoinette's excess into something subversively light à la Sofia Coppola, with Rococo meeting rave, and panniers and denim sharing the same dance floor.
What could’ve been a costume instead felt chic, thanks to Lagerfeld’s refusal to treat history as something immovable. Tulle skirts paired with lace-up boots, quilted jackets trimmed with pearls, corseted minis in pale neoprene, everything spoke to freedom in the gardens of a palace too rigid for our times. Lagerfeld, as always, knew how to tease the past without ever being trapped in it.