As I've been trawling through a gazillion menswear S/S 10 show images for work, I noticed that there was a mini tendancy to hold shows in outdoor spaces, fully visible to the passing public as opposed to being locked away behind a beefy security guard, an anxious PR and an invitation that bears your name, and your seating/standing fate that makes you feel big or small depending on where you're sitting or… *gasp* standing.
This of course could be a practical thing, given that it was 30 degrees and hotter. It could be an ambient statement on Dries Van Noten and Kris van Assche (for Dior Homme)'s part.
It most probably ISN'T an act of democratising fashion, in the way that Henrik Vibskov does with his shows which is to ask the public to cough up either money or packets of cigarettes to attend his shows in Copenhagen.
Still, I am fascinated by reactions of people peering into and stumbling upon fashion shows, unlikely to know what exactly is going on but being interested nonetheless. I'm not about to start ripping up the rulebook and declaring 'Vive le Fashion Revolution!', 'Power to the People' and all that but seeing as I'm supposedly part of a blogging community that is making fashion a 'democratic' thing (an unsteady point that actually hasn't been verified but journalists love to throw around nontheless…) I'd like to throw the idea of open-to-all fashion shows out there. For once, I'm putting forth the question 'Yay or nay?' instead of forming my own opinion (I have no concrete conclusion…)…
I'm specifically talking about the BIG FOUR of course given that public access fashion shows already take place elsewhere. The fashion hierarchy that we are painfully obsessed with via Jak and Jil (is it envy, anger or adulation?) would be chipped a little save for the top tiers of the triangle that of course still get to sit front row. Only there would be a somewhat larger crowd sitting behind them. Or perhaps there could be a tombola system… see what seat number/row you pull out of tombola and you can sit your arse there. Hey, I'm of course just pondering the mere possibility…
Not that any of this will actually happen in an organised public access system… the fashion industry has just about got over the fact that mere mortals can get hold of show images hours after the show… letting people into the hallowed sweaty halls (more often than not, shows are sweaty affairs…) would be another matter altogether…
certainly all for outdoor shows & many reasons for why.
Perhaps I’m naive but I can’t see a harm in opening up attendance or a reason not to… But then I’m in no way a fashion insider, nor in thrall of jak and jil which I find to be a bit too exclusive and stultifying… But perhaps fashion’s appeal is the phantasmagorical. Doubtless part of fashion is aspurational and cliquey. This blog transcends those closed doors, but if the industry can’t manage to employ the same verve, enthusiasm and desire to share, then it might turn out to be a real emporers clothes moment.
Like it or not the elitist aspect is part of the allure. If everyone could attend the shows it wouldn’t be that special.
I have to say that the few shows I have attended I was kind of disgusted by everyone’s obsession with whether they were standing or sitting. It didn’t seem like an issue relating to getting a good view or not but rather entirely about status. I actually overheard people sneer at people standing! I wanted to go over and shake some sense into them. Having experienced both seating and standing I can say that with some shows it’s actually better to stand!
I’d love for shows to be open to the public so that it would take away the feeling of false superiority so many fashion ‘insiders’ clearly have. It becomes less about fashion and more about oneupmanship.
Having met Disney Roller Girl I must admit I was very impressed by the fact she wasn’t like at all. She is the way it should be.
I think that part of the appeal is that it is elitist too. It doesn’t make it right though, does it?
i can see for a younger brand that appeals to the pixies and peaches of the world, that an area where hard fashion lovers could hear about and rush to see would generate some cool publicity, a bit like the angels sale
^^^Yes, it’s a hierarchy that literally disappears once people leave the show. Somehow, those little numbers and letters on the invitations hold a sway for the fashion industry that THEY feel puts them in their place. When really, the system of seating arrangements is sometimes to arbitrary and wildly different from show to show that it makes no sense at all… for seated people to sneer at all is laughable seeing as at another show, they might well be standing themselves…
I don’t get the whole elitist spin anyway, who gives a crap if some rock stars daughter gets front row for PR. The recent Rick Owens show was sublime and while being one of the first to witness ‘those’ futuristic sneaker boots, I personally feel ‘more’ elitist trying the garments on in the showroom and meeting the people that made it happen??? Quite frankly I think the consumer is far more interested in the clothing once on the rails…I can’t imagine Mr. Beckham feeling the urge to rush over to Paris alleys to witness whether KVA could pull it off, nor any other millionaire. They’re interested in what becomes available where they shop and when they shop. This whole ‘allure’ has no real backbone…I think the evidence is the lack of interest from the public this Mens? In fact, advertising the fact there are open shows is more likely to attract the consumers and engage in a far more direct manner. Increasing interest/awareness and what not to drive up sales…far more alluring than shoving up some half-arsed 9 minute video, directed by somebody who could never quite make it in film and failing to catch what’s important, the clothing!
Montreal’s fashion week (Yes there is a fasion week in montreal! ) is already taking place outside. It’s great, it’s kinda like a mini festival with local designers. Of course the ones well known are talking place inside but they are really easy to attend and the shows outside are cool cause they’re all about the upcoming designers.
Interesting. Not sure how I feel about that type of exhibition.
Just so long as its not raining. 🙂
I would like to see fashion shows. So they should be open to public. The tombola systems sounds nice to me.
But I don’t think that the fashion industry would do that.
The swedish brand Carin Wester had an open for public-outdoor show for her ss09-collection. It was just a round catwalk with a circle of chairs as a front row around it and then a crowd of specially invited people but of course also people that just heard of it or happened to pass by. But of course- it´s a small brand, it would have been more mindblowing if Chanel did it.
Anyhow; I noticed at the show that the crowd that you´d expected to be big wasn’t that big. And also many of the chairs on front row were empty, I guess you could see that as some kind of statement.
I absolutely think that ‘the fashion people’in some way feels that the allure kind of goes away if everyones invited..! Because if you think that you are slightly better than ‘everyone’– why would you go where they go?
I’m not sure that fashion shows need to have public access (they are trade events after all – it’s just these days *everyone* thinks they know everything about fashion, and feel they should be part of the action), but I agree the whole hierarchy thing is ridiculous and it would be good to shake things up.
I sometimes wonder about the Jak & Jil phenenomen too.. I think his pictures are fantastic and I love looking at them, but I don’t let myself get obsessed.. looking at some of the other comments on the site I think it gets a bit unhealthy for some people.. sort of like impossible aspirations, ‘you can only dream’ type thing..
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