Fashion Week season, oh how I love thee! The multitude of catwalk presentations, the spontaneous gatherings of fashion luminaries on the streets of New York, London, Milan, Paris! The gazillion inspiring street style photography! It’s like a shot of fashion adrenaline to live on for months!
How much of this fashion is just for the show, though? A couple of years ago, getting an invite for a Fashion Show was glorious while the Front Row was the fashionista’s ultimate candy shop (even worth fist fighting for). Now that more and more fashion shows have adopted the live streaming and street style photography is worthy for a Vogue column, how do fashion shows keep their edge intact?
Tom Ford tried the closed doors, ultra exclusive defiles, he even hired celebrities to show off his merchandise on the catwalk but he ended up opening his doors to the public… Some shows present their designs in extremely chic but small venues, thus turning them into exclusive presentations by default. What about the brands not sending their models on the traditional catwalks?
Although I did not officially reviewed the current Spring Summer 2016 Fashion Week shows, I do go through the pictures and the videos every day, devouring the novelties and sifting through the designs. Comptoir des Cotonniers and Cacharel just released their SS16 collections and not only they’re enchanting, but I also realized the increased aesthethic value of an editorial-like presentation!
No pressure, the glum looking models, no robot-walk, no high-speed defile or blockbuster worthy staging. Everything is calm and inviting, even poetic (Cacharel’s print shirts are just dreamy!) and soothing. I don’t have to stare at collar bones protruding silky layers, no model endangered its frail structure by falling off towering heels. I may seem a bit off my time and off the trends, but the calm and the eerie suspended in time feeling I get from this type of presentations make the fashion weeks frenzy obsolete and borderline absurd.
Of course, my experience is sidelined by the simplest fact of not attending a real life fashion show. The editorial type of fashion presentation is definitely what I like more although I’m perfectly aware of the endless cheating possibilities (setting, lighting, retouching). What would you choose between catwalk and editorial fashion show presentations (and why, of course)? (images styledotcom)
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I got some invites this season and honestly, even if I could watch them live on the internet, there’s a feeling of exclusivity rather thrilling I admit. It’s nice knowing a brand and PR agencies recognizes you as a blogger and want you to be part of the event. Even as a spectator behind my computer screen, I like the fact a real show has been organized. However I loved the Cacharel “edit”, I think it is another way to contextualize the collection. Both ways are nice, but I don’t want the shows to disappear !
You raise a very interesting question. It seems that the main problem with the editorial like presentation is that we can’t see the clothes in motion. Why is that so important for the fashion editor but not for the final customer ( given very few of us watch the shows ) is a mystery for me as well. I myself only buy things I saw at pictures, never bought something because I saw it “in motion”.
If I could watch live an editorial type presentation I would take it anyday over a traditional catwalk. ( not that I actually attend any of them ).
Did you know that days after the main fashion show most of labels hold small presentations with in house “maniquies” for the biggest fashion editors and main clients ? So they can see the clothes in a proper way.
Although it’s surprising to hear, it makes absolute and perfect sense! For us, as mere spectators, the aesthetic worth of a show is more obvious in editorial-type presentations. I think. At least as far as I’m concerned, I can pick designs from the latest collections to replicate in either wardrobe combinations or small diy projects of my own. I rarely dream of actually owning an item as seen on the catwalk as the budget is so far out of my reach. For buyers and clients it makes more sense to see the clothes in motion as they’re evaluating the actual wearability of the collection.
Similarly, I do appreciate the ‘catwalk’ option of some of the online stores I frequent, to better appreciate the garment I’m seriously considering to buy…
fair enough! Bloggers have long suffered of their underground status and the simple fact that the ‘fashion pros’ snubbed this entire category at first felt so wrong on so many levels! Yes, you have the fame hungry, the opportunists, the hobby-ists, but there are also really valuable individuals who started blogging because of the amazing opportunity to express their opinions and perspectives! So many of them are fresh, original, different! But it was so natural for such a shallow industry to manifest such a shallow reaction, right?
I’m mesmerized by the ‘behind the scenes’ operations. Makeup, fittings, scenery – that blows me away completely! Then there’s the entire process behind a collection – the inspiration, the drawing, the sartorial processing of the garments… But the glum attitude of the models, the ever-so-skinnier girls partaking the shows, the unequal castings – that’s a part I do not enjoy associating with fashion…
Can’t wait to read all of your reports on the Parisian Fashion Week! keep strong, take care, and be inspired!
I am waiting your consideration on Margiela. And, did you see that people at Chloé were thinking on you ? “This season’s collection is a tribute to girls named Kate, Chloé, Cecilia, Corinne, Rosemary, Emma, and Courtney, who embody the liberty and the elegance of a perfectly mastered and excessively lived simplicity.”
ah yes, I was style-struck ;-) thank you for bringing it up! spotlight on me – someone hand me a glorious mascara, I need my fluttering game on!
Can you believe I’m still waiting for it to sink in? I went through the images several times, and was so emotionally involved with Galliano’s designs and his new ‘sober self’ – I honestly think that what he’s doing now is so much more powerful than the shows he put on of Dior! Although I was loving those theatricals so, so much!
I might be ill, I have to check my temperature later because I totally LOVED the Prada collection. It was the strongest in Milan IMO. I generally detest her work on clothes, including those hideous gowns she sends to the red carpets.
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