The Chanel Cruise 2024 Campaign travels to LA, home to its May 10, 2023 cruise show. The new cruise collection marries the reverie of glamorous Hollywood film figures with Los Angeles’ active lifestyle pursuits: board sports, aerobics, roller skating and more.

In the new Chanel Cruise campaign, models Anna Ewers and Loli Bahia capture the cinematic side of the LA vibe of the 1960s in images and film by Inez & Vinoodh [IG] [Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin]. The film is fabulous imo.

Evoking the Californian way of life, rhinestone-covered mini-shorts and jumpsuits, embroidered bustiers and little tank tops, an abundant use of terry cloth — these elements all activated a healthy vitality to the cruise 2024 collection, created by Virginie Viard.

Especially with the use of black and wine-colored lace pants and slip dresses, Chanel quietly addressed [perhaps unknowingly] the more seedy side of Los Angeles in the 1960s and now.

Like New York, LA was always a story of two cities. The luxury brand version — whether it’s Chanel’s or Louis Vuitton’s — is genuine and true to their clientele.

We must understand, however, that even in the 1960s, there was a significant and growing underbelly of poverty to LA.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense [BPP] was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland.

It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality.

As civil rights movements gained momentum nationwide during the mid-1960s, LA became a hub for racial integration efforts. African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and other minority groups actively fought against discrimination and demanded equal rights. Their struggles lead to increased diversity in neighborhoods like Watts and East Los Angeles.

If you asked most Americans about the LA riots, they would be clueless. Those who do remember massive riots in LA would name the Rodney King riots of 1992. For five days, the city burned and 50 experienced riot-related deaths.

In fact, the Watts Riots of 1965 lasted for six days, resulting in the deaths of 34 people, with more than 1,000 injured. Hundreds of buildings and whole city blocks were burned to the ground in Watts. To make the situation worse, firefighters couldn’t contain the fires, because police could not protect them from the rioters.

Large parts of LA have never recovered from these massive periods of civil unrest.

In the Internet age, these stories are all being retold — some honestly and in other cases — as a pack of lies. These stories can be validated with earnest research and a group [AOC uses three and cross-checks them] of AI assistants.

The disparities in LA were front and center in spring 2023, when voters in Beverly Hills chose ‘no’ in a very close election regarding the proposed LVMH Cheval Blanc hotel. Yes, Anne is the eternal optimist, and I truly believed there was a solution — not only in the form of higher wages —but subsidized housing for workers, financed by LVMH.

As I noted in the AOC commentary about the proposed Cheval Blanc, luxury brand hotel workers are sleeping in their cars an hour outside of LA, with their families too far away to commute to work each day.

I still believe my proposal was doable, had Anne been on the negotiating team. And I don’t negate the view of rich people in Beverly Hills who didn’t want another multi-year construction project. They were voters, too.

My focus would have been building a bridge between the hotel workers’ union and LVMH. Hope springs eternal.

Enough commentary about the Chanel Spring 2024 Cruise Campaign, set in LA. Rather than merely quoting press releases, AOC always tries to give readers a reminder of the real lives impacted by decisions of the 1%.

Somebody’s got to do it, and in the retail press world, we need voices beyond corporate PR agents who are paid to gild the lily. In a compliment to LVMH — and at the risk of sounding over-confident — I believe that the outcome of the Cheval Blanc Hotel in LA would have been different, had I been on the negotiating team.

If any parent corporation would have listened to an Anne presentation on this topic, it’s LVMH.

In the case of Chanel, they have much more to prove in this complementary sector of deep contradictions between elites and ordinary people. As does Kering. Burberry understands what I’m saying.

Only LVMH has their act together. Whether they take action on these must-do changes remains to be seen. But they understand deeply the retail and cultural values landscape in America and beyond.