Fashion shows. Depending on who you are and where you're coming from, those very words can evoke vastly different images. From slow, prowling models elegantly and plainly making their way past members of the industry, to the empowered steps and stomps of the 90s, and, finally, to today's simple walk, not unusually offbeat to the music (and even more offbeat to the clothes.) Because fashion itself is a reflection of the times, it only makes sense for fashion shows to be as well; just as fashion is a medium for ideas to be expressed on to, fashion shows are the greater medium, even more space for ideas to be conveyed. And just as fashion's origins are strictly linked to practicality, so are that of the fashion show's.
What started out as simply an event for editors, critics, buyers, and illustrators to see the latest trends, more business than play, has become a fit label for the wonderfully-overblown spectacles of John Galliano, the chillingly-thought-provoking of Alexander McQueen, the social-norm-challenging of Rick Owens. The words "fashion show" equally describes the most extravagant and expensive of productions, and also those most straightforward and simple. While we all know what they supposedly look like, what passes as a fashion show today is becoming more and more amorphous.
Fashion shows today aren't just technology-friendly, they're created for
technology. Sometimes, these technology driven shows are a total miss - i.e., when a brand makes the clothes/setting solely to look good on a screen. But other times, albeit few and far between, technology is used in a way that is helpful to fashion. The most recent example of this was Gucci, recently a frequent, all-around "good example" under Alessandro Michele, which uploaded their Pre-Fall collection in a nice little presentation on Snapchat. It was convenient, easy, and true to all that is the Gucci Girl, which normally doesn't include technology.
I hate the idea of other brands using the "Gucci Success Story," which is, I believe, part of the reason so many seasoned designers have just recently departed from their positions, but Gucci has offered one of the best combinations of fashion shows and technology since the initial, and now a bit old, live-stream video; the original merging of fashion and technology. Fashion shows will never be finished changing, but I think Alessandro Michele has achieved a significant change for the better.
Christian Dior.
Yves Saint Laurent.
John Galliano.
Alexander McQueen.
Screenshots from Gucci Pre-Fall on Snapchat.
Screenshots from Gucci Pre-Fall on Snapchat.