Chanel reveals its upcoming Hong Kong show location and gets ready to name a new designer

Sep 10 , 2024

The Hong Kong Design Institute will host the restaging of the Chanel Cruise 2024-2025 collection in the city on November 5. Photos: Handout

President of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky says the Hong Kong market is key – and he won’t let online speculation affect his creative director pick

French fashion house Chanel’s restaging of its cruise 2024-2025 show will take place at the Hong Kong Design Institute on November 5.

The show, which first took place in Marseille, France in May, will strengthen Chanel’s bond with its Hong Kong customers and the local community, Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, said in an interview with Style.

The striking building that houses the institute is located in the formerly industrial area of Tseung Kwan O, and was designed by French firm Coldefy. “We have selected a very interesting area – the first time ever for a fashion show, if I’m right – with very interesting architecture and [that’s] very Hong Kong,” says Pavlovsky. “And on top of that, it’s one of the biggest institutions for students in Hong Kong, so it’s a great opportunity for us to collaborate.”

The Chanel cruise show 2024-25 first took place in Marseille, France, in May

In recent years, Chanel has been very active on Hong Kong’s cultural scene – the house is a major partner of M+ on the West Kowloon Waterfront. The cruise show will involve a collaborative project with the Hong Kong Design Institute that began in Marseille, with five students from the school travelling to experience the first unveiling of the collection back in May.

Pavlovsky explains that staging a show in Hong Kong has been a goal for Chanel for quite some time: the brand had planned to restage a cruise show in the city before the coronavirus pandemic, but eventually cancelled the event due to the anti-government protests at the time.

The Hong Kong market is key to Chanel, he adds, even more so at a time when cultivating local clients has become paramount for luxury brands. “We will have a few clients from the region, but the key focus is Hong Kong clients; although we will have some from Shenzhen or Macau, the main objective is to engage our Hong Kong community, media, influencers and students. We will have some dedicated programmes for students,” he says.

Barely one month after the Hong Kong show, Chanel will unveil its 2024-25 Métiers d’art collection in Hangzhou, China. Before that, it will support a Shanghai exhibition organised by Comité Colbert – an association that promotes French savoir faire – to commemorate the 60th year anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France.

The Chanel cruise 2024-25 show was held in a building designed by French architect Le Corbusier in Marseille, France

Greater China has been top of mind for luxury groups these days – a drop in spending by the region’s customers has created uncertainty in a part of the world that had, until recently, experienced extreme growth. But Pavlovsky, who is still sanguine about the prospects of Hong Kong and Greater China for Chanel, says that these activations had been planned long before those recent developments.