Designers turn fashion shows into shows
New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2018
Milan Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2018
Madrid Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2018
These days the most important fashion weeks on the planet are celebrated. With New York, Madrid and Milan already closed and in the middle of 'fashion week' in Paris, both designers and brands continue to seek to surprise their public. It remains in force that the catwalk, in addition to showing new designs, seeks to attract attention. And some have succeeded. Before the Fenty x Puma by Rihanna show, some bikers did somersaults; the Desigual models, more than parading, danced; not to mention the increasingly surprising locations, as in the case of Carolina Herrera, who chose the gardens of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (MET) as her location.
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Fashion shows began to be organized in the mid-1930s to sell collections to a small group of retailers and women eager to see what was new, but today they have turned to theatricality and spectacle. "Originally, the atmosphere was intimate and exclusive. Later they tried to captivate the specialized press while, at present, their objective is to make an impact, get covers and international repercussion; in short, to talk about the brand", explains María Eugenia Josa Martínez, architect and professor of Creativity at ISEM Fashion Business School.
There are more than a hundred fashion weeks in the world, with an average of 50 fashion shows each. But if the analysis is reduced to just the five main ones - New York, London, Paris, Milan and Madrid - we would be talking about just over 500 passes a year. "The catwalks have become laboratories that force designers to experiment and surprise with new stories every six months. All of them are forced to stand out by presenting something new and striking, which attracts both the press and consumers, this being the claim that allows them to distinguish themselves from the other 'shows'", says Marisa Santamaría, director of the International Trends Unit at IED Madrid.
This need to attract attention, together with the speed imposed by social networks and other digital platforms, has made the fashion sector rethink the way to reach the consumer. In recent years, many firms have been tempted to replace fashion shows with 'fashion films'. However, after several attempts, they concluded that the catwalk is the best way to approach their potential client.
The parade is still necessary but, at least in its most purist version, it is not enough. Thinking about immediacy and avoiding copying, some have joined the 'see now, buy now' movement, managing to implement -as Burberry did in its day and Tommy Hilfiger and many others have now done- applications that allow ordering garments while they are displayed on the catwalk. There are those who have taught the spectators what happened in the 'backstage'; Nicola Formichetti managed in 2011, when he was the creative director of Mugler, that Lady Gaga presented a new theme in the middle of the collection's showing, and almost all firms seek striking locations that decorate with emphasis.
It may sound almost sacrilegious, but today in a parade the clothes are the least of it. "It is a theatrical staging, the objective is to communicate the brand and transmit a creative universe, then the pieces arrive on the market in different ways," says Santamaría. A statement shared by Josa, who adds that "through the 'shows' we seek repercussion and reach the largest possible audience, encouraging them to buy the firm's products that are available as fragrances, bags or wallets." Although there is also a more romantic point, that of transmitting one of the intrinsic values of fashion: transporting the consumer to an aspirational universe that is sometimes unattainable.
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