Armed with a brolley (nothing was going to keep us away!) we headed to Churchill House in New Bond Street to perve over Louis Vuitton’s brand new Cruise 2013 collection in person.

Unlike most Cruise collections, where the motto is usually along the lines of “the skimpier the better”, the Louis Vuitton offering is far more subtle and understated. Basically, it doesn’t matter how hot the weather is (a problem we don’t really have to worry about here in Blighty – ha!) it’s still encouraged to dress in a chic and not too revealing manner.

Although you’d think layering is the way forward for the autumn/winter season, it was in fact the base of the Louis Vuitton Crusie collection too.

The colour palette was also somewhat relaxed and unconventional too; our favourite items of clothing included a navy blue evening dress and a red leather tunic dress.  It’s also a little bit sixties and seventies in some places – the platform shoes with the psychedelic print gave that away!

Of course our favourite part of any Louis Vuitton collection is the range of handbags, and lo and behold, we found ourselves practically salivating at the sight of the new pieces of arm candy on offer. We were very pleased to see the return of the Speedy and Neverfull bags which were in cute shades of caramel and pink, although we wouldn’t have said no to a wider selection of colours!

We expected some more brightly coloured bags in the Cruise collection, but we were more than happy with the selection on show. If you follow us on Twitter, you may recall us being particularly fond of a certain turquoise bag… isn’t it adorable? The accessories were particularly wow-some too, as you can see below. We think the necklace is going to find itself on many editorial pages in future, don’t you?

So after all that, we can officially confirm that the Cruise collection is even cuter up close than when we first saw it on our computer screens when it debuted last month.

Which piece is your favourite?