Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Resort wear is a clothing style and a year-round fashion season, sometimes referred to as cruise wear. The concept began as collections designed for affluent consumers spending the post-Christmas and New Year weeks in warm-weather climates; it has become a specialized year-round category signifying relaxation, affluence and vacation dressing, from walking shorts, caftans and sandals to full-length evening dresses and light dinner jackets.
A fashion collection is a grouping of designs that have been created to form a single collection of items. They are generally based on a particular theme, trend, garment category, season, etc.
Resort wear is a clothing style, as well as a year-round fashion "season". This category of clothing is sometimes referred to as "cruise wear". The original concept being that it was a fashion collections designed specifically for the very affluent consumers who would typically spend the post-Christmas/new Year's weeks in warm-weather climates. Basically, it was a seasonal collection designed for vacations.
In more recent years the term has transitioned more of a “year” round fashion season. Because people take vacations all year, fashion designers, store buyers, and the media new reference "resort wear" as a specialized year-round clothing style and fashion season.
The resort wear category is now for vacations as well as a year round luxurious lifestyle. This category of fashion has become a cross-cultural style that signifies relaxation, affluence, and appreciation of high quality clothing which displays a sense of style to the wearer.
From walking shorts, caftans and sandals, to full-length evening dresses for women and light dinner jackets for men, resort wear signifies luxurious yet vacation vibe design and function. The category can be worn comfortably yet elegantly. Resort wear is generally made from cotton, silk, denim, microfiber, poplin, and other fabrications that are easy to pack, lightweight and breathable. They are not always but they are often easy to clean and look great without ironing or fuss. The concept being that they need to look good for wearers that are on the go trying to enjoy their travel, vacation, or local use in resort like regions of the world.
Large hats, sunglasses, open-toed shoes, summer dresses, and innovative styles complete the look for those sun-soaked destinations. The resort wear theme is now a regular part of many of the runway shows in New York, Paris, Milan etc. Similar to Sping/summer & Fall/winter the Resort Wear category has become an important part of Fashion Week.
Resort wear is important collection for many brands and designer collections. Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Anna Sui, Prada, Marc Jacobs and many other designers have shown resort wear in their collections. Clothing companies such as J. Crew, Banana Republic, Lilly Pulitzer, and Tommy Bahama are also keen on this segment of the market.
Resort wear is also sometimes referenced as a cruise collection.
If you are planning a vacation, you may want to research Bermuda, St. Thomas, Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica, Jamaica, etc.
You may also want to learn about flip-flops if you planning on going on vacation.
We hope that this page helps you better understand the concept of resort fashion collections.
Read more fashion terms here on Apparel Search. We hope you have been enjoying your reading. Hopefully you are reading this while relaxing at a lovely resort on a tropical island.
If you are planning a fabulous trip to a vacation resort, you may want to learn more about fashion for travel.
Learn about various types of fashion collections such as a resortwear collection in this Fashion Term Directory.
A resortwear collection is a fashion collection — a grouping of designs created around a single theme — whose theme is the vacation itself. That theme dictates the garment list: swim-adjacent pieces and sandals for the day, walking shorts and caftans that move between beach and lunch, summer dresses, large hats and sunglasses, and, at the formal end, full-length evening dresses and light dinner jackets for resort evenings. The unifying requirement is performance while traveling. Clothing must pack into luggage without damage, weigh little, breathe in heat, and come out of the suitcase ready to wear — which is why easy-care, wrinkle-resistant fabrications dominate the category and why a heavy, structured garment, however beautiful, is not resort wear.
The category's growth mirrors travel itself. Resort began as a niche season serving customers who wintered in warm climates, and designers treated it as a small inter-season collection. As vacations spread across the calendar, resort became one of the most commercially important collections of the year — shown by houses such as Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Anna Sui, Prada and Marc Jacobs on the runway, and built into full ranges by companies such as J.Crew, Banana Republic, Lilly Pulitzer and Tommy Bahama. For many brands the resort collection spends longer on the selling floor than the main seasonal collections, which makes its sell-through disproportionately valuable.
For the wearer planning a trip, the term is a useful filter when shopping: a garment marketed as resort wear promises the packability, breathability and relaxed elegance of the category, whether the destination is Bermuda, St. Thomas, Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica or Jamaica — or a resort-style setting close to home. Read alongside the broader term fashion collection, resortwear shows how a collection can be defined not by a silhouette or a fabric, but by the place and the life it is designed for.
They are the same category under two names: resort wear is also referenced as a cruise collection. Both describe a vacation-oriented collection designed for warm-weather destinations and resort settings.
Resort wear is generally made from cotton, silk, denim, microfiber, poplin and other fabrications that are easy to pack, lightweight and breathable — and often easy to clean and presentable without ironing, for wearers on the go.
Originally the post-Christmas and New Year holiday weeks, when affluent customers traveled to warm climates. Because people now vacation all year, resort has transitioned into a year-round fashion season and a regular part of Fashion Week schedules alongside spring/summer and fall/winter.