TEXT ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN
And I’m sure they give to charity.
go up close and take pictures.
There are, of course, parts of fashion week even a die-hard old-scholar like
It is new takes on the show format like these, which we should really look to
myself could do without. Re-sees are, for the most part, ridiculous. The very
if we want to make a difference in the way fashion week works. Getting rid of
word ‘re-see’ says it all: unless you’re a hardcore fan of the designer or you
the shows, however, could be the very death of the industry as a whole. What,
couldn’t see the shoes at the show – which, granted, can be a problem for a lot
for instance, would we write about in its place if we hadn’t had Marc Jacobs’
of people – why would anyone need to fill up an already insane fashion week
magnificent Louis Vuitton show to bid him farewell last season? I personally got a good three stories out of those escalators, the fountain, the lifts, the carousel, the porters, maids and poignant show atmosphere, which above all felt like a
louis vuitton
catwalk shows are here to stay life is but a (catwalk) show, get rid of them and fashion’s bubble of dreams will burst!
backdrop after having walked the show, inviting guests to leave their seats and
schedule with seeing something on a hanger that they’ve just seen presented beautifully in a fabulous show the day before? And won’t we see it again a few weeks later at a press day, anyway? Only fuelled by the increasing demands of
moment in fashion. Feelings are why we put on these extremely costly shows,
advertisers, who know they can get away with force treatment, the pressure
why we spend fortunes travelling to them, and put up with all the bullshit they
to attend more and more appointments on the schedule is infuriating, and
entail. We do it for the fashion moments. Sorry to sound like J. Alexander.
contributes to the bad rep of fashion week.
The first time I went to a Jean Paul Gaultier show, my friend Anthony whispered
While ‘just going to shows’ may sound flippant to those who haven’t been to
to me: “This is a fashion moment.” I remember it so vividly. The first time I
fashion week it is anything but. Yes, you mingle and go to parties and have
went to a John Galliano show and he came out in full costume, I had the kind
fancy drinks all the time, but the nice stuff is only the shell around weeks of
of shivers I can still feel when I think about his magical talent now. I once
truly hard work. As a writer, when I’m away for the shows, I go backstage
started crying at a Todd Lynn show because Janet Jackson walked in and it was
to interview the designers, I get to bed at 2 am after a work-related dinner,
only a few months after her brother had passed away and she looked so much
and I get up at 5 am every morning to transcribe my interviews and write my coverage for three hours before going to shows again at 9 am. It’s hard work, and I love it because the shows create the foundation of my entire season.
realised it did for others, I became sceptical. Who wouldn’t want to be taken to New
merit, I don’t particularly care how things are made, what they’re made of and what
York, Florence, Milan and Paris several times a year (okay, maybe not Milan) only to look
from the season before. I was backstage and it was Rick Owens and I suddenly
that technique is called. My terminology is terrible, and I zone out when people tell me
at largely beautiful clothes, attend glamorous receptions, and experience something
realised how much these things mean. These are the moments that build our
about colour codes and fabrication treatments. Fashion, to me, is about theatre. Not
only very few people will get to see in their lives? As I talked to my tired colleagues,
fashion memories, and which drive us to keep going to that next show, that next
necessarily theatrics (I hate gimmicks) but a grand show. I grew up idolising people
I realised they weren’t just being divas. As it turns out, not everyone loves a fashion
season, and seeking out new experiences.
be saying about them. Regardless of what format anti-showgoers propose in
who presented themselves ceremoniously through what they wore – Michael Jackson,
show as much as I do!
Would we have the same comprehension of Meadham Kirchhoff’s fantastical
the old-school show’s place, I don’t see anything being able to give us the same
Madonna, Prince, Marilyn Manson and David Bowie – and clothes became a dreamwork
It’s this attitude that has bred a new movement in the industry, which is calling for a re-
world if it weren’t for their elaborate sets and filmic soundtracks? Without
understanding of what the season is about.
to me. I started attending fashion shows in the early era of Gareth Pugh’s London, when
evaluation of the show system. You hear them all the time out in the fashion landscape,
the gloomy music and derelict surroundings of the last show, there’s no way
I’m so old-fashioned, my colleagues tell me. Loosen up, get an iPhone. But
Mandi Lennard ran a tight door and an even tighter ship inside, and we’d all attend
these insurgents rioting against the old structure of systematic fashion weeks with
of knowing if we would really understand their convoluted minds and very
isn’t it the romanticism of fashion that got most of us here in the first place?
shows with a mixed spirit of excitement, fear and fandom. It was awesome.
shows, presentations, and receptions, demanding all sorts of preposterous things in
relevant imbued messages. What would Alexander McQueen have been
Fashion, not unlike the monarchy, is a delicate, dreamy institution, which needs
I have never spent a single minute of my life watching YouTube videos of old fashion
their place: from more intimate presentations hosted by the designers to digital show
without Lee McQueen’s arresting shows, and how would John Galliano have
its lavish ceremonies of splendour and magnificence in order to stay relevant.
shows, and I wouldn’t today either, but there was something about attending those
formats and – God help us – fashion weeks consisting only of re-sees. If I worked in
fared if he could only have presented his gowns on a hanger in some white-
shows that gave me a thrill I had never experienced before. Gareth Pugh’s shows were
a fashion industry that only presented clothes in the ways suggested above, I would
walled Parisian office? If fashion wants to keep breeding great, inspired minds
like rock concerts. Set in “Nu Rave” London, they were packed with club kids, friends
choke, or likely die from boredom. For what could be more mind-blowing and inspiring
like these, we have to give designers room, patience and capital to develop
and super fans, who lined the sides of the tent in The Natural History Museum that
than the défilé, with all its pomp and circumstance, and what could be more detrimental
their artistic platforms. And unless those platforms involve a video, this doesn’t
had all the fashion stars on the front row, Sarah Mower, Suzy Menkes, Tim Blanks.
to an industry based on dreams than the neglect of this escapism?
constitute a live-streamed show. I can’t imagine anything more tedious than
It was like a magical court of drama, entirely devoted – and with much tension – to
Sometimes I feel like I live in Versailles and the rebels are coming to ruin it all, destroy
watching a fashion show on film, like some music video with no plot or vocals.
is just easier to type on. Not all that zooming in and out with the fingers like
watching something beautiful, breathtaking, and surprising unfold before your eyes for
the gilded ceilings and turn off my giant fountain. The argument posed by these Jacobins
So what of all the people, who can’t attend the live show? Well, for one, if
you’ve got strange cramps.
eight precious minutes.
of the modern fashion world is that the show represents an obsolete and elitist culture
they’re not in fashion, why is it exactly that they should? I certainly have no
I wouldn’t like to work in a fashion industry without the shows. The world is
It had all the elements of a gripping game: the getting in (“Hi, I’m with, um, Danish
where people have to go through hierarchical seating treatment and several weeks of
claim to attending a dentist’s convention, and if I did, I would probably work
so obsessed with the real, sometimes I feel like there’s no wonderment left
Vogue?”), the trying to sit as close to the catwalk as you could without getting moved
stressful travelling only to not really see the clothes properly on the catwalk, catch the
very hard on getting a medical degree. If I blogged about dentistry, I wouldn’t
anymore. To me, the shows represent a little piece of something bigger and
(nothing is more embarrassing than having to do the walk of shame), and the telling
fashion flu, and get behind on their ‘actual’ work. But in an industry that sells images,
feel entitled to attending said convention either, because I still wouldn’t be a
better than the dreary reality of a boring, modest, politically correct Western
others you had been there after the show (“Of course I was there”). Then, of course,
nothing could be more important than the biannual outlining of these by the designers,
dentist, now would I? So instead of getting all commie about fashion week and
society where no one believes in magic anymore. Elitism is just a word dull
there was the collection and the show production and the realisation that you were one
who dream up all those ideas. I do, however, understand people’s concerns when it
all the people we really ought to include (I’m referring to communism here, not
people have come up with to spoil the fun for those who dare to dream. Let’s
of just a few hundred people, who got to have that experience. Many years on, today
comes to some PRs’ love of ranking orders and differential treatment. Every editor has
Kawakuboism), perhaps the industry should just focus on the original point of a
leave our good sensible, liberal opinions to the world of politics and the global
I attend some 350 shows a year – which is a whole lot of Smints, chewing gum, and
been on both sides of that game, and at the end of the day, it’s all quite hideous.
fashion show: generating press and sales. I really have no moral scruples about
society, and let the future of fashion reflects its glorious past. The shows must
hand sanitiser – and I still find them as awe-inspiring as ever. When O Mio Babbino Caro
Instead of abolishing the show system, designers and their vast show teams should
Louis Vuitton putting eight or however many million pounds into their show
go on!
resounded in the scorching tent in the Tuileries last season, I forgot I had a headache
focus on creating shows of a more democratic nature. At Prada, Ippolito Pestellini
production even if it only lasts ten minutes, because it’s all worth it in the end.
and was melting under my puffa and became entirely entranced in that Valentino show,
and his AMO/OMA team devote more importance to building a show venue where
its purling Roman gold and its transparent gown layers whispering in the wind.
everybody has the best seat as they do anything else. And you can always see the full
Complaining is a big part of going to fashion week. We complain when we have to
looks at Prada, regardless of where they put you. When Haider Ackermann shows his
queue, when they’re not serving drinks, when we have to wait for a show to start, and
men’s collections, he does it in a huge venue where everyone has the best view, with
when we can’t get out for people blocking the way. We sit in the car and complain
just a few unallocated chairs and a whole lot of wine, making for a relaxed atmosphere
about our schedule, about traffic, the weather, and a boring show we don’t want to go
where nobody feels like they should be sitting or shouldn’t be standing. Similarly, at
to next. But for me, this never changed the fact that I love being at the shows. When I
Dries Van Noten’s spring/summer 14 men’s show, models posed against a huge golden
chanel
alexander mcqueen
prada
I don’t think I chose to work in fashion for the garments. While I appreciate artisanal
like him. I remember the first time a designer commented on my show review
When I leave Paris after two weeks of men’s shows, for instance, I know exactly what and who I’m going to be writing about all season, and what I’m going to
If we turn the fashion show into some folksy barn bash of digital inclusiveness, we lose the covetable, aspirational aspect of it, which constitutes fashion’s entire raison d’être. The quality of a retail Alexander McQueen dress can be as high as it wants, but without the show of fantastical, unsellable gowns that inspired it, it loses the most important part of its meaning. Also, a Blackberry
tweet @anderscmadsen
“You hear them all the time, these insurgents, rioting against fashion weeks and demanding all sorts of preposterous things in their place: from more intimate presentations to digital show formats and – God help us – fashion weeks consisting only of re-sees. If I worked in a fashion industry that presented clothes in these ways, I would choke, or likely die from boredom!” ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN
188 i-D MAGAZINE
i-D MAGAZINE 189