To Fashion Show or Not To Fashion Show, That’s Not Even the Question!
By Ali Khan
For some time now, one of the hottest takes in fashion has been about the future of fashion shows as the presentation of choice for designers. This was reinforced last year when lockdowns and social distancing guidelines had all major events either canceled or indefinitely postponed. The ever-rising popularity of fashion films added to this growing voice by presenting itself to be the next medium of choice to replace the traditional runway fashion show. Major fashion publications have since continued to promote that idea, declaring that the fashion show is as good as dead. This is a misguided conclusion from a problematic analysis due to several reasons.
Fashion continues to be a design practice that is meant to be worn and be seen; unless virtual reality makes technological leaps and bounds, it is simply not a replacement to a fashion catwalk showing models walk down the runway showing the exact silhouette, drape, and fit of the clothes (even in its simplest of iteration).
It is true that there are designers whose work does not really require a runway presentation. Most contemporary designers like Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, (except the ‘Raf Simons’ years) as well as the countless hoodie and T-shirt (streetwear) brands that are very popular currently fail to generate excitement on the ramp. But that is because of the nature of their clothing (minimal, classic or basic and not varying much from season to season). That these brands are seduced by the glamour to put on a fashion show is not the fault of the show but perhaps the wrong decision of that particular brand.
With the 2020 pandemic and the uncertainty of the situations in the near future, a lot of major brands like Saint Laurent, Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Michael Kors (I guess for them — they finally got it right) decided to forego the fashion week in. This was seen as some sort of acknowledgment that the era of the fashion show was coming to an end. This was again a wrong analysis. Brands like Chanel (the torchbearers for what Luxury fashion is and will be) doubled down and continued to put on shows, acknowledging the importance a fashion show still holds in creating the dream that drives sales.
Similarly, a lot of luxury brands that did not hold an in-person fashion show last season still put out a presentation that was although digital, still strictly followed the format of a runway show. The Celine Spring Summer 2021 show and the latest Dior Men’s cruise show are just a couple of examples of that. The buzz generated by the Chanel or the Dior shows in comparison to the fragmented film festival put out by Gucci is a clear indication of the reality that still exists.
When the pandemic is over and things are back to normal (even if it is the “new normal”), I can predict most of the brands that opted out of the fashion show will be back. Unless it is for financial reasons, then they have other more serious problems to worry about than the future of fashion shows at large.
Fashion continues to be a design practice that is meant to be worn and be seen; unless virtual reality makes technological leaps and bounds, it is simply not a replacement to a fashion catwalk showing models walk down the runway showing the exact silhouette, drape and fit of the clothes (even in its simplest of iteration).
Furthermore, these opinion-makers continue to confuse a fashion show with a fashion week. A fashion week is a costly event with its own set of objectives that can vary greatly from promoting a city on a global level to actual support of the local fashion industry. If we look at fashion weeks, yes there can be a case made for certain fashion weeks to not exist — they don’t bring much value to the industry, are not sustainable, and rarely ever bring the right audience for the designers invested in showing there. But that is a case-by-case basis — surely the multiple failures of Singapore fashion week do not suggest that Paris fashion week should not exist anymore.
For decades Japanese designers have been using the Tokyo Fashion Week as a springboard to launch their brands and eventually leave for the greener pastures of Paris and New York enriching the industry with new ideas, innovations, and aesthetical language. The fashion show and fashion week are part of an ecosystem that enables the rise and discovery of such talent and it continues to do so more than ever today globally.
If we look at history that precedes the advent of Instagram, Issey Miyake started his career doing clothes that were only presented in gallery exhibitions and free of the human form. In time he realized that clothing is meaningless unless it is worn by people and hence his shift into fashion and embracing of the fashion show. Imagine the visual experiences that we would have been denied if he had never put on runway presentations.
The fashion show and fashion week are part of an ecosystem that enables the rise and discovery of such talent and it continues to do so more than ever today globally.
While it could be that eventually such influential voices end up bringing down the traditional fashion show but it would not be because the fashion show was irrelevant or outdated but because like with so many things humanity continues to evolve in directions that are not necessarily in its best interest but because they end up becoming the voice of the majority.
The internet and social media make it easier these days to amplify such trends, a lot of times falsely i.e. fake news! Through that social media there continues to be a celebration of fashion that has become democratized and accessible to most, if not all.
While it makes sense for the people to celebrate that, it's perplexing to see the industry itself wanting to embrace that notion. One does not have to go too far in fashion history to know of the number of brands that destroyed themselves in trying to go down that route. So if you truly understand fashion, you would know that fashion will not exist if it is universal and democratized. The very core of fashion is made of exclusivity, of being part of a select club, of a dream that we can only aspire to. Without that dream, there is no fashion. And killing the fashion show kills a big part of that dream.
Hence, moving away from the fashion show presentation is only a misguided change, perhaps in the name of sustainability as the case is made often times — when we all know that to be truly sustainable we need to actually control our thirst for endless growth and increasing consumption. A fashion show is an extremely minute part of the environmental damage that the fashion industry incurs annually through overproductions, toxic pollutants, and human exploitations — to scapegoat it for environmental damage is just another form of green-washing that the industry consistently engages in to deflect responsibility.
So, when all is said and done, if as an industry we have learned our lessons from history, it should become clear that the reports of the demise of the fashion show’ had been greatly exaggerated.
