Why Chanel is now showing its collections twice

Fashion is frequently likened to a travelling circus but actually it's more like a rock band hitting the road for a multi-stadium tour. This applies particularly to Chanel, which – uniquely among the great French houses – launches six full collections every year.

Not content with the standard spring/summer and autumn/winter shows during Paris fashion week, it also does two couture shows a year, in January and July.

You might think that was quite enough for creative director Virginie Viard to get her teeth into. But no. There's also a Métiers d'Art show in December every year, which showcases the skills of all the artisanal ateliers the brand owns – such as Maison Michel, the hatmaker, and Lesage, which is responsible for the house's extravagant beading and embroidery.

And let's not forget the annual cruise show that happens in the early summer, usually somewhere hot and glamorous. Cruise designs go on sale in the autumn, stick around in store longest, and are generally the most shopped collections of the year.

Chanel does absolutely nothing by halves, so all these events involve a frenzy of work. This starts with dreaming up a concept, then designing and creating the clothes, casting the models, then fittings and, finally, staging the actual catwalk show. This may last only 10 minutes, but months and months of work go into each one.

After all that, Viard and her team could be forgiven for switching off their phones and lying down in a darkened room in their Rue Cambon HQ in Paris with cucumber slices over their eyes, and whale music playing in the background. But the show must go on, and on.

So, the maison's latest wheeze has been to pack up its Métiers d'Art and cruise shows, travel halfway around the world, and send the models down the runway again, months later.

The latest of these so-called 'replica' shows was in a scorching hot Miami in November, a rerun of May's cruise show in Monaco. And even then, in the manner of a matinee and an evening performance, there were two separate events, one for clients – mostly from Miami itself with a small number of guests invited from South America and from the rest of the United States – and another for celebrities and a smattering of fashion hacks.

'The number of customers who can come to Paris is quite limited,' explained Bruno Pavlovsky, the house's president of fashion, who has been at Chanel since 1990. 'Our clients don't have the opportunity to see a show every two weeks, or even every two years. For most of them, it's the first time.'

These replica shows address a problem fashion brands have struggled with for years. There's a huge wave of excitement on Instagram and TikTok each time a collection is unveiled, but then the actual customers have to wait months before they get a chance to try on, and buy, what they have seen on the catwalk.

So, like repeats on television, the rerun of the show whets their appetite again, and this time they can rush straight from their gilded front-row seat – or sun-lounger – and snap up what they just saw paraded down the runway on a model.

'It's not see-now, buy-now,' said Pavlovsky of the idea behind the reprise. 'Some of them have already seen the collection in May.' Instead, for him, 'it's the only way to celebrate the collection at the same time as it's in the boutiques. It's a question of timing.'

As a bonus, the house gets a second bite of the cherry on social media, with digital influencers once again creating a huge amount of noise online to help drive sales in store with what Pavlovsky rightly called 'unique Chanel moments'.

And what moments they were. There were epic levels of glamour on Miami Beach as Florida hit peak Chanel, with Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny and French singer Vanessa Paradis), Pharrell Williams, his wife, Helen, and 14-year-old son, Rocket, all decked out in Viard's designs and posing for photographs.

The legendary musician Nile Rodgers and the French actor Marion Cotillard, joined them on red-and-white sun loungers to watch models stride down a weathered wooden boardwalk that served as a runway.

Later, during a riotous party fuelled by oysters, crab salad and much Champagne, Rodgers played his back catalogue (including Let's Dance and Material Girl). At the end of his set, Williams joined him on stage for the classiest karaoke session ever – singing along to Get Lucky, the Daft Punk hit they both performed on.

So much for the glitz. The following morning, Williams donned his rhinestone sunglasses again and, together with Pavlovsky and the French model and musician Caroline de Maigret, hosted a masterclass across the road from the show venue with students from Miami fashion colleges. They were there to inspire a new generation of designers and artisans who may in the future – who knows? – go to work for the maison.

As for the collection itself, what worked in Monte Carlo was a hit in Miami too. 'The collection sits perfectly here,' said Pavlovsky, 'with its light and energy and colours. It's very different but at the same time there are a lot of similarities with Monaco.' Indeed.

The motor-racing helmets – both full-sized and shrunk down to become minaudières – worked just as well in Florida, where Formula One is a new craze, as they did in Monaco, where the Grand Prix has been at full throttle since 1929. So did the sporty boiler suits, peaked caps, sequins and breezy wide-legged pants. And, like Rodgers, Viard didn't neglect Chanel's greatest hits, so there were two-tone court shoes, bouclé suits, jewelled belts and quilted handbags in abundance. Labels with less brand power must be gnashing their teeth at this joyous Gallic takeover of Miami Beach.

In fact, the only person who didn't join in the fun was Virginie Viard herself. She was, no doubt, back in Rue Cambon dreaming up the next Chanel spectacular.