Travel Destinations Inspired By This Season’s Runway Palette

Chanel’s Cuban cacophony of color at their Havana resort show. Dior’s love letter to Seville and the romance of Spanish craftsmanship. Simon Porte Jacquemus practically built a brand around the visual appeal of southern France’s lavender and wheat fields. We can all think of a time when a fashion collection felt indelibly tied to a destination. Fashion and travel have always been entwined, the one inspiring the other and vice versa. Both are, ultimately, about fantasy, aspiration and the art of transformation.

This season, color is driving the conversation. As we move past the more muted palettes of the last few years and plunge headfirst into riotous pinks, bold oranges, aquamarine and so on, it’s easier to see runway looks as a jumping off point for travel plans. This summer, take your cue from four of the season’s most atmospheric shades.

Move aside, cerulean blue, spring/summer 2026’s most potent shade is deeper and more electric. It came in slick leather mini dresses at Loewe; in elegant, ankle-grazing silk at Tove; and as an accessories punctuation mark (via a slouchy cobalt tote) at Victoria Beckham. And when it comes to realizing your cosmic cobalt vision? Santorini is the only answer. It’s the color of its domes, tied to Greek national identity, the sea and sky, and, in some traditions, protection and spirituality.

Stay at Noūs Santorini, a Design Hotels retreat in Mesaria with gardens and a comforting wellness mood; or Canaves Epitome, the all-villa Oia resort known for sunset views and a calmer remove from the island’s busiest lanes. Bellonias Villas, on Kamari’s black volcanic beach, offers an eastern-shore alternative, while Santorini Sky is there for the allure of a private pool. For dinner, Selene remains an island institution: housed in an 18th-century monastery and dedicated to reworking Santorinian gastronomy.

Enter your cobalt era with Zimmermann’s ‘Aster’ maxi dress, Christopher Esber’s ‘Jo’ flip flops and Sophie Buhai’s ‘Angelika’ earrings. It’s an ensemble that will pack a punch against the island’s whitewashed walls.

Marrakech is too often characterized by souks, kaftans and, for the fashion crowd at least, Yves Klein Blue. But really, it’s great style lesson is color of much warmer tones: baked earth, rose plaster, terracotta, turmeric, dust and sun-kissed pink. Thankfully, spring/summer 2026 understood this assignment. At Chloé, warm clay tones appeared in soft, ruffled layers; Burberry gave the shade a harder edge with beaded minis; Tory Burch explored clay and ochre through scrunched, tactile two-pieces.

Marrakech is also having a serious design moment. Beyond the great palace hotels, a new generation of riads and farm stays is pulling the city back into the global creative conversation, mixing craft, contemporary art, workshops and slower, more immersive forms of luxury.

Stay at Royal Mansour, which remains the big gesture: a palatial medina retreat of private riads, gardens, artisan detail and a very comprehensive spa. Its restaurants include La Grande Brasserie by Hélène Darroze and Sesamo by Massimiliano Alajmo. For something more intimate, Dar Al Dall by This Time Tomorrow is a five-suite medina riad known as the ‘House of Shadow’, with hand-chiseled tilework, carved plaster, a hammam, rooftop and digital-detox vibe.

Wear Tove’s ruched dusty-rose ‘Amina’ midi dress with Saint Laurent’s brown ‘Babylone’ sandals, complementing the warm earth tones with Juju Vera’s ‘Olympia’ arm cuff.