The first guests jostle an hour early on the pool deck. “You want to have the best view of the maestri and their creations!” says a woman in a white linen dress. The only thing missing is that loungers and chairs with towels are reserved. So much package tourism behavior is frowned upon on a luxury cruise ship like this one. Rather, waiting on board when cruising the world’s oceans is considered a favorite way to gradually distance yourself from the stresses of everyday life. So: get in the mood for champagne and look forward to shopping, welcome to the “Fashion2Night” trip at the MS Europa 2.
The five-day fashion trip started a good two weeks ago in Hamburg. The concept: while the ship is still in port, two German labels each show an exclusively designed collection in cooperation with the Fashion Council Germany. First Fassbender, in the designs rather clean and current hope of the scene. Then Odeeh, more artistic, with an atelier tradition and one of the very few brands that has been established for years. In addition, celebrities are invited to disembark after the after-show party. The paying guests then sail via Copenhagen to Gothenburg and back to Hamburg. Along the way, they can shop the collections at a pop-up boutique and meet the designers in person. They go with you. Cost: from 2990 euros per person.
In addition to fashion, the price also offers seven restaurants, six bars and 251 cabins, each with a balcony. More than 370 crew members take care of a maximum of 500 guests, there is plenty of light wood, warm light and not a speck of dust far and wide. This makes Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ largest ship a fairly comfortable boat in international comparison. In addition, as the company likes to emphasize, it is not quite as harmful to the environment as others: Since 2020, heavy fuel oil has been dispensed with and less polluting marine gas oil has been used.
The “Full Metal Cruise” is a kind of Wacken at sea
The fact that people like to shop on cruise ships is of course just as little new as special event cruises. In order to regularly get new customers and, above all, regular guests on board, shipping companies have to provide entertainment. Musicals performed by the ship’s staff or a lecture about the port city to be called next are no longer enough. Why you can go on the most absurd trips these days: Tui has a “Rockliner” (with Udo Lindenberg) or a “Full Metal Cruise” (Wacken at sea) in its program. In the US, cruises are popular for swingers or with a series theme, such as “The Walking Dead.”
The combination of shopping and cruising for the wealthy public came about ten years ago. The Aida group, for example, likes to organize art trips with auctions (previous record: a James Rizzi for 155,000 euros). On the MS Europa 2 art is more of a constant companion. More than 890 works adorn suites and public areas, including works by Damien Hirst and Gerhard Richter. The “Fashion2Night” format started in 2016 and also offers “Fashion2See” – with a show on the open sea instead of in the port. Other concepts show that the idea of the luxury butter ride is picking up speed again.
In August, for example, the queen mary 2 set off on an “Art & Design Week” for the first time, including master classes with creative people and artists. The one put into operation in May Azamara Onward advertises with a shopping offer that is tailored to the destination ports. If the ship stops in Greece, you can buy jewelry from the house of Hermina Athens inspired by antiquity. Incidentally, this type of transfer of a travel location to the ship is called “destination immersion” in marketing jargon.
On the Dior Express to Cannes? For selected customers only
Behind it is a company that only takes care of the furnishing of fine boutiques on cruise ships: Starboard Cruises, currently in use for eight shipping companies worldwide and owned by the luxury goods group LVMH. In 2019, LVMH also took over the Belmond Group, which operates hotels, among other things, but also top-class railways. In May, the first Orient Express made its way from Paris to Cannes on behalf of Dior, complete with a pop-up spa and a dinner served in style by Dior crockery.
It is only logical that fashion companies use every opportunity to get customers. Because lockdowns have turned the industry upside down in the past two years and given it hard times, a lot of catching up is now being done. “Luxury is booming post-Covid, and brands are taking it to the extreme with VIP experiences,” the industry service said recently business of fashion. Such experiences are, for example, a series of dinners and parties to which a select group of customers is invited in order to subsequently gain access to strictly limited products. Real jewelery even includes long weekends. The customer is no longer king, but emperor.
Which is why Julian Pfitzner, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, personally greets his “Fashion2Night” guests on the pool deck before the show. Pfitzner says: “Four years ago, when we started planning for the event, none of us could have guessed how a virus would change the world.” And its industry – in 2020 alone, the number of guests on cruises collapsed by 81 percent. On this evening, they want to celebrate “the spirit of optimism of a great summer” with the passengers.
Sailing boats, anchors, fish: the designs have a maritime pattern
Then comes the show: a lasciviously contorting performance group in earth-colored costumes appears on a white catwalk that juts out over the pool, followed by the Fassbender collection. Rib knit and shirt blouse dresses, a slightly oversized trench coat, all comfortable and pretty casual. The designer Christina Fassbender takes up the cruise theme with a blouse whose shawl collar is held together in the middle by a gemstone, so that one has to think of an old sailor shirt. The Odeeh collection, on the other hand, is rich in maritime patterns. The two designers Otto Drögsler and Jörg Ehrlich developed it together with the illustrator Marco Wagner. Sailing boats, anchors and fish adorn long blouses and wide pajama pants, skirts and dresses in rich shades of green and blue. All well done. When the models and designers finally come onto the catwalk, applause breaks out, interspersed with cheers. The tills are likely to ring in the coming days. According to Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, most of the sales go to the labels, only a small contribution is required to equip the pop-up boutique.
Incidentally, a good deal is not the only advantage a designer has from such a trip. “There is also a learning effect,” believes Otto Drögsler from Odeeh. “One finds out in direct contact which drafts are not even looked at and which ones are particularly well received.”