STYLE

By Pema Bakshi

7 November 2024

Chanel Celebrates A Hong Kong Stopover For Cruise 2024/25 With Short Film ‘Modern Flirt’

From the port of Marseille to the bustling streets of Hong Kong.

chanel-cruise-2025-hong-kong — Angela Yuen captured by Wing Shya / Image: supplied by Chanel

Since its seaside show in Marseille, France, earlier this year, the Chanel Cruise 2024/25 collection has resurfaced in Hong Kong.

To celebrate this stopover, the House has tapped French filmmaker Audrey Diwan to craft an atmospheric short film titled Modern Flirt. Starring local actress Angela Yuen and French actor Benjamin Voisin, the project celebrates the cinematic allure of the region’s vibrant nightlife and juxtaposes it with the timeless elegance of Chanel and its esteemed artistry.

Journeying from the shores of Marseille, where it first debuted last May, the Virginie Viard-designed collection captured the essence of the port city and its amalgam of culture and natural beauty.

“The sun, architecture, music and dance: Marseille has a very strong sense of freedom,” she said of the collection. “I was inspired by the codes of lifestyle, of everyday life and by all the things that invite movement.”

In this border-transcending collaboration, Diwan draws out this same sentiment from the bespeckled skyline of Hong Kong, inviting us to move with its propulsive pace.

In Modern Flirt, Yuen and Voisin’s characters cross paths amidst the frenetic energy of Hong Kong’s bustling streets, an encounter set against the city’s kaleidoscopic lights. The chemistry between the pair is unspoken, rife with glances and half-smiles that speak to the subtlety of connection. Their story unfolds in that ephemeral moment of shared intrigue and possibility—an apt reflection of Viard’s own muse for the collection.

Originally unveiled atop Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille, the Cruise 2024/25 collection celebrates freedom, movement, and a connection to the sea and its possibilities. Viard’s designs play with wetsuit silhouettes and breezy fabrics, evoking the Mediterranean’s untamed beauty.

Now, in Hong Kong, the collection’s spirit of wanderlust finds a new home, brought to life through Diwan’s sophisticated, noir-like vision of the city. In spotlighting this stopover, Chanel also maintains its longstanding connection to film.