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Runway Dreaming Lizzie Schneider + Ally Wei
RUNWAY DREAMING
Haute couture is a dream state in itself -- the allure of luxury draws the public like a moth to a flame, and in every facet is an elevation from common necessity. Not only is a visit to a highend boutique an experience in the customer service aspect, but brands’ exclusive fashion shows elevate the already high fashion experience into an entirely different world. Worldwide fashion weeks are high-profile events with celebrities and fashion industry royalty flying in to attend. With the COVID-19 pandemic, designers had to pivot in order to create virtual editions of the otherworldly shows that provide a spectacle and a welcome respite from the outside world.
Typically, a fashion show takes place in a large venue equipped with a runway and many seats for attendees to view. For example, the Tommy Hilfiger New York Fashion Week show in 2016 was located on a pier and featured a carnival complete with rides, popcorn and pop-up shops. The show itself could seat up to 2000 guests and served as the main “attraction.” Oftentimes, the shows have been planned long in advance to go with the collection’s theme and inspiration and provide a deliberately artistic lens for the viewer to see the clothing through by utilizing setting, sound, and visuals. A prolific example of transporting viewers through fashion shows and the collections themselves would be the shows of Alexander McQueen. One of the most innovative creative minds of the 20th and 21st centuries, McQueen created worlds within his shows all centered around the clothing he designed. His Spring 1999 show “Number 13” highlighted the fashion house’s craftsmanship abilities, including models in ornately carved prosthetic legs, wooden angel wings and an entire skirt made of wood panels shaped to form a fan. The most avant-garde aspect of the show that lent it its dreamlike quality was the
final look. Model Shalom Harlow stood on a turntable in a plain white shift dress, gracefully sprayed in red paint by robots as she rotated. The dress was designed before the audience’s very eyes and went on to be exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s costume collection. McQueen and creative director Sarah Burton, who took over the fashion house after his death, are known for their outlandish shows and imagination. For example, in one show taking place against the backdrop of a forest, a model’s head was adorned with antlers. In a break from the avant-garde nature McQueen tends to be drawn towards, the Autumn/Winter 2010-11 “Savage Beauty” show featured ornately gilded dresses reminiscent of Renaissance textiles and was fairly wearable. Evoking medieval Madonnas and Byzantine empresses, the feature that dramatically elevated the collection’s dream state was the show’s setting. Located in a heavily laquered
Parisian chateau, the sumptuousness of the collection’s surroundings paired with the regality of the clothing made those in attendance feel as though they had traveled back through time to the late 1700s.
Unfortunately, with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, the majority of the fashion world was forced to become virtual. Fashion shows were physically canceled, but that did not stop brands from putting on a show. Louis Vuitton turned to augmented reality technology, sending each attendee a pair of goggles from which they could watch the show with just models present in a physical form in Paris. Other brands pivoted as well, showing the flexibility of high fashion’s showmanship to remain relevant.
Lizzie Schneider is a student at the University of Southern California pursuing a degree in Communication.
Ally Wei is an Los Angeles-based photographer who specializes in fashion and editorial photography. She loves going on adventures and spending time with friends. Ally studies Media Arts and Practice at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California.
A living fairytale of high fashion. Elegant dresses in mystical environments, featuring empowering and bold women.
Models Annika Gavlak Elsie Wang
Balmain opted to display their collection in typical fashion, although attendees were merely virtual faces in the crowd. Prada chose to create a line for the Spring/Summer 2020 season made up entirely of upper body logo work so as to appear fully decked out when a buyer were to be on a Zoom or Facetime call, and Gucci created an entire online “festival” complete with Gucci remotes sent to attendees in their goodie bags in which art features and celebrity appearances marked the showing of their 2020 collections. The dreaminess of these occurrences can partly be attributed to the modernity of technology usage, but for the majority of the population, an invite to attend high fashion shows, be it virtual or in-person, is a dream in itself.
Off the runway in designer stores, shopping is above the average department store or boutique experience. One is greeted personally by a sales associate who caters to every need and is typically offered a refreshment and a place to sit. In Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive, not only does Gucci have a boutique, but also has its own café restaurant on its rooftop, further offering an all-encompassing experience. When on Rodeo itself, shoppers step into a tree-lined wonderland of glittering window displays and sumptuously dressed shoppers complete with expensive cars and pricey sit-down restaurants. It is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Downtown Los Angeles. A unique, and often overlooked feature that makes shopping at luxury store locations a dream state is the personal relationship clients formulate with their sales associates. Relationships typically develop within a few years and if a rapport is built strong enough, especially at stores like Hermes, a shopper can get insider
access to exclusive products and even get on uber-exclusive waitlists for elusive products like the Kelly or Birkin bags. Another popular luxury locale is Asia, where the landscape of luxury shopping is shifting and where a third to a half of global luxury designer sales originate. The game of designer exclusivity and becoming a deserving customer is a feature of luxury shopping that those outside the world of fashion may not be aware of in the slightest. It is yet another gate in the path to the designer dreamstate.
The allure of luxury is its perceived unattainability, and the experience goes beyond simply clothing. The signal of wealth and attentiveness that comes with it is something that many cannot fathom and the lucky few get to experience from each new season. The production of catwalks and fashion shows are truly the lifeblood of designer fashion, for without creativity, a dreamworld created both for the masses and the few would not be possible. During uncertain times like the current COVID-19 pandemic, further questions about the unattainability of luxury fashion are called into question. Considering whether it is tone-deaf to even put on fashion shows, debating if fashion even holds as much weight during a global crisis, and the industrial shift to virtuality have been integral questions to think about for both brands and consumers. From a consumer standpoint, online shopping has held more weight than usual as the idea of wearing fun clothing in the future to events post-pandemic is a light at the end of the tunnel. The catwalk broadcasts serve as a welcome distraction from the bleak statistics released each day on news outlets and can be considered a creative dream for the future.
