Why Karl is staging Chanel’s Cruise show in Cuba

Karl Lagerfeld has gained a reputation for staging Chanel shows in far-flung locations – in the past he’s chosen destinations that range from Salzburg to Seoul, Singapore, Saint Tropez, Dallas and Dubai. The house’s upcoming Métiers d’Art show will be in Rome this December and, as announced yesterday, its Resort 2017 show will be in Havana, Cuba in May next year. 

Lagerfeld hinted at the location at Chanel’s airport-themed SS16 show last month saying, “I would love to do a show in Cuba”. The event will make history as the first time the house has staged a show in Latin America. But why has he chosen the Carribean island? According to Fashionista, “cultural richness and opening up of Cuba” has been a long-term source of inspiration for the designer. 

Last year, Lagerfeld staged the house’s Cruise outside of the confines of Paris’s Grand Palais too – in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The event paid homage to the city with a rainbow-hued rife on the house’s classics, along with appearances from Korean-American model Soo Joo Park and K-Pop stars such as G-Dragon and CL.

Cuba has been inspiring a lot of designers recently – Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler both looked to the island for their Cruise 2016 collections and Hussein Chalayan cited a recent trip there as a crucial reference for his SS16 offering, which was unveiled at Paris Fashion Week last month. It will be interesting to see exactly how the island inspires Chanel’s creative director.

Watch Chanel’s SS16 show below: