Last year, Chanel presented its cruise collection in a lavish display at the Grand Palais in Paris, with a set that transformed the cavernous space into a train platform, with the railways acting as the catwalk’s borders. Claudia Schiffer was there, and Keira Knightley too, applauding the candy-bright jackets many fashion critics thought were a stroke of genius from new creative director (or, in Chanel's vernacular, artistic director of the fashion collections) Virginie Viard. It was, as they say, a scene.

This year, things are very different. In March, Chanel made the decision to cancel its cruise show, which would have taken place in Capri – the perfect setting, one might imagine, for a holiday collection. For a brand that prides itself on its shows, and which has, in the past, set its clothing collections against such backdrops as a rocket ship, a supermarket, an airport, a circus, a man-made beach and a library, cancelling it altogether is a first, and one the brand hopes not to repeat.