under Nicolas Ghesquière, and recent Chanel videos by Inez and Vinoodh, Karim Sadli and Sofia Coppola commissioned by Virginie Viard to complement her collection, as good examples of how to execute runway alternatives. “I believe the shows could be some kind of enhanced photoshoot with less clothes and less models.” From a press point of view, the format would create the narrative needed to give the garments life.
It’s a point I’ve often found myself making in defence of fashion weeks, which can feel – and surely look like – a never-ending circus. Since I began covering the shows some 10 years ago, the sustainability of the fashion calendar – with its ready-to-wear, menswear, haute couture and cruise collections – has been continuously questioned.
As we prepare to rethink the shows, starting with the men’s weeks due in June, what strikes me as the most important objective is that we include every existing sector of the fashion week machine in the solution. While the role of the buyer is a given, the industry has to sustain its producers, casting agents, sound experts, models, stylists, hair and make-up professionals and photographers.
❤️❤️❤️
And, perhaps, fashion itself? Inasmuch as fashion reflects not what society is but what we wish it could be, were it not what it is.