Is a Runway Show really Necessary?

NY Times

 

 

PARIS — On a giant screen figures swirl through a geometric landscape, morphing into a myriad of images. Finally the repeated forms focus into a centrifugal force: the single and particular figure of the model Kristen McMenamy — she of the long silver gray hair framing a strong face.

The 11-minute film that Gareth Pugh showed on Wednesday, the opening day of the Paris collections, was the fruit of much thought and two days of intense filming in London.

Ruth Hogben, trained as part of Nick Knight’s ShowStudio team and the creator of images for Lady Gaga’s world tour, was charged with capturing the essence of the Gareth Pugh aesthetic. Instead of a runway show, this presentation, projected to enormous size in the Paris Bercy stadium, is Mr. Pugh’s fashion tool.

In its bravura, its beauty and its possibility of going viral to hundreds of million of people via ShowStudio and over the Internet, this grand slam in the virtual world poses a question that is increasingly being asked by both designers and executives: Is a fashion show really necessary?

Or will the bi-annual shows in different cities ultimately be replaced by virtual fashion or some other yet-to-be-invented format?

“We just have to press a button,” said Mr. Pugh before the show, although with hindsight he admitted that it was not any easier — and certainly not any less expensive — to take the image option, even if it avoided the “uncontrollable stress” of the live format.

As a concept, he finds the idea of video sequences exhilarating, setting the mood and conveying the essence of his vision, backed up with a look book focused on the clothes.

“The perception is that people aren’t willing to accept something else,” said Mr. Pugh, 29, who has shown films previously — but more recently has given catwalk shows in Paris, where he has been supported as a protégé of the designer Rick Owens.

The process of bringing his team from London to “very foreign surroundings” and everything “relying on the single show” sparked his search for an alternative.

“With a show, a lot rides on that very small amount of time and the whole thing comes down to image,” Mr. Pugh said. “If a model trips or has a problem with shoes, that is the thing that endures. It is liberating for a designer not to have to worry about a show. You can get the models to be even more expressive and do it all in a more concise way.”

“I always think about things in movement,” said the designer, who once studied dance and made the film with a male dancer from the English National Ballet School, alongside Ms. McMenamy.

Yet the feeling persists that backing off from a runway show is a cop-out or a sign of weakness, although mini-movies are increasingly used by big brands to focus on a particular message. The series of Lady Dior films, starring the French actress Marion Cotillard, are astute marketing tools, particularly for regions like Asia — highlighted in the recent “Lady Blue Shanghai” by David Lynch. They complement the live Paris runway shows, excite and inspire an audience and set a tone and an image.

But for Ms. Hogben, in the Gareth Pugh film and in other visual work she has done for ShowStudio, the concept is not so much to grab attention as to arouse emotion.

“I spend my whole world and whole life thinking about films to make in the fashion genre,” Ms. Hogben said. “I follow my own heart and I hope that if I am successful, film can become an alternative to showing clothes.”

The filmmaker says that she is “completely led by Gareth’s designs. I try to make a representation of every piece of fabric, every shape and sculpture. I am trying to convey Gareth’s world. I play with scale, physically some parts are quite claustrophobic. There is a lot of freedom, depth and space — a vast, endless infinity of the world. This season it is very varied indeed.”

For both designer and filmmaker the optimal word is “emotion.” And that is at the heart of the issue about whether the screen can contribute to fashion, rather than just reflect it.

There is a general feeling that after a quarter of a century of catwalk shows, with zombie-faced models walking up and down, with no interaction between clothes and audience, this system is coagulating fashion blood rather than making pulses race.

While the shows from John Galliano and of the late Alexander McQueen in the 1990s were unforgettable experiences, from liaisons dangereuses of historic figures to disturbing suggestions of a lunatic asylum, those creative expressions were essentially fashion as theater.

The digital camera and the Internet changed everything because even exceptional shows could only be instantly relived as still images on Style.com or as video clips.

Now there is the possibility of made-for-cyberspace fashion shows, which can be seen in their pure and intended form forever, or manipulated as teasers on YouTube. Instead of the media editing what seem to be the crucial elements and outfits, the designer retains control and takes the images straight to the public.

“It’s like going from theater to cinema — and I absolutely believe it is going to happen for three reasons,” said Mr. Knight, the great originator and instigator of fashion live on film.

“Firstly, it is a true artistic expression that the designers can control,” he said. “Secondly they can get so many more people, from 300 to three million. And because — although it hasn’t happened yet — designers will want to sell their clothes.”

Mr. Knight believes that someone who says “I love that Gareth Pugh silver coat” will be able to place an order directly from the Internet (as Burberry is already doing), avoiding all e-commerce or brick-and-mortar stores — a daunting possibility of an earthquake in consumer shopping.

Mr. Knight also knows that ending the twice-a-year shows in major cities would meet with opposition from all vested interests. Therefore it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The question for people who love and enjoy fashion is whether virtual shows, or expressions of creative ideas via the camera eye, can satisfactorily replace live shows.

Adrian Joffe, the president of Comme des Garçons International and the right hand of its designer, Rei Kawakubo, used film to great effect in 2009 with “Wonderwood,” a short film by the artistic Quay brothers to express the beauty of a fragrance based on raw wood. Mr. Joffe, who banned any suggestion of a perfume bottle on the screen, called the work “an evocation of the spirit of a thing.”

Could such a concept work for Comme’s original and imaginative fashion?

“Rei is dying to find another way to show her clothes,” said Mr. Joffe, but he added that Ms. Kawakubo, who has always ruled out a static presentation, finds it hard to envisage how the texture and feel of the clothes could be expressed on film, along with the feeling.

Mr. Pugh’s decision was not to have the film showing in one area and the collection displayed in another — an idea that has been pursued by sensitive, artistic and intelligent designers like Hussein Chalayan.

Instead, the modular jackets, the rubberized neoprene, the stretch silk jersey and the high-tech effects of geometric silicone pattern and digitally printed clothes — most of that a breakthrough for the designer — can be seen by professionals in the still images. Yet the designer knows that photographs are not really a substitute for a show or for the movie.

Mr. Pugh calls the stills “a way not to scare people off,” since showing “merely” a film tends to alarm buyers and to discourage some press.

Mr. Knight believes that everything is working in favor of halting the caravansary of models, buyers and press who travel extensively each year: the cost, the pressure to reduce carbon footprints and fashion’s essential yearning for change.

He considers his ShowStudio a sound environment to show fashion, with the right values, while “the language of fashion” does not exist in the cacophony of YouTube.

“But the films have to be good,” Mr. Knight said. “What Gareth has done is created a great piece of entertainment.”

From The Runway To Your Laptop

Story from the Wall Street Journal

At the D&G runway show in Milan last week, the chief executives of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman were relegated to second-row and third-row seats. In front of them, sitting primly in the first row, was Federico Marchetti, chief executive of online retailer Yoox.com .

The moment—coming as the super-sexy women's styles for next spring pranced down Milan's runways—marked a shake-up in an ultra-hierarchical world. The privileged treatment of a digital-media figure showed that luxury fashion is ready to introduce styles to the public in new ways—new, at least, to this old-fashioned industry.

Front rows are reserved for those most important to a brand's success—celebrities, important retailers and magazine editors. In past years, Mr. Marchetti sometimes borrowed tickets to shows from other guests. But in the past year, Yoox has expanded its business of creating online stores for luxury brands such as D&G, the casual ready-to-wear line from Dolce & Gabbana, and for Jil Sander—whose site launched just today. And this season, Mr. Marchetti has actually been invited to too many shows. "I don't have time anymore," he said at a party thrown by Versace in Milan.

The warm welcome extends to bloggers. While the New York shows have been inviting some bloggers for a few seasons now, many of Europe's luxury houses have been slower to allow bloggers into the shows. But two days after the D&G event, at a show for the high-end Dolce & Gabbana line, four surprised bloggers found themselves seated in coveted spots near the queen of fashion, Vogue editor Anna Wintour. One of them, Tommy Ton of JakandJil.com, could hardly believe he'd made it into one of Milan's hottest shows. "A season ago I had to wait patiently outside for arrivals and exits, and now I'm sitting here," he blogged from his seat, on a laptop provided by Dolce & Gabbana.

Luxury brands have long been leery of the pedestrian Internet, a place where consumers coldly compare prices while forgoing attentive service. This was OK for Lands' End, maybe, but not for Lanvin. After all, what woman would buy a $2,600 dress without first trying it on? But online luxury sites like Net-a-Porter.com proved that many women would do just that. Now, Yoox—which says it plans to take itself public on Italy's stock exchange in coming months—is running online stores for brands including Bally, Valentino, Pucci, and Marni.

This season, Twitter and Facebook are littered with fashion brands—including Louis Vuitton and Burberry—testing how social-media sites might benefit them. At the shows in Europe, audience members can be seen typing the digital messages known as tweets into their iPhones and BlackBerries as the models sashay down the runway. A number of brands—including Dolce & Gabbana and Burberry—have tried streaming their shows live on the Internet. Alexander McQueen will live-stream his show from Paris next week.

Of course, many brands remain leery. Etro, for instance, hasn't yet pursued blogging or social-media outlets, preferring to dress celebrities and sell its vividly colorful designs in bricks-and-mortar stores, according to a person familiar with the brand's strategy. But the person added, "Perhaps in the near future it will be inevitable." Other Etro staffers couldn't be reached for comment.

With 30 employees working on new media, Dolce & Gabbana is wholehearted. Stefano Gabbana—the tall, dark, 46-year-old half of the design duo—believes the Internet is the only way to reach people in their 20s. "It's the future. How many young customers don't read newspapers—they read blogs!" he says in his Milan office, whose walls are lined with leopard wallpaper. (The print matches the leopard print of his Vespa, which is parked on the sidewalk outside.)

Mr. Gabbana concedes that he and his partner, Domenico Dolce, are feeling their way along. "Domenico doesn't have a computer—just his mobile phone," he says. "But Domenico has—how you call them?" He wiggles his index fingers above his head like antennae, indicating Mr. Dolce's sensitivity to new ideas. It was Mr. Dolce who told his partner about Yoox.

What's more, Mr. Gabbana feels the Internet offers the possibility of talking directly to customers. "You are a filter," Mr. Gabbana tells me sternly. His experience with several recent scandals—such as an ad campaign banned in several countries—has increased his appreciation of this opportunity.

In December, he asked Kerry Olsen to edit a new online magazine for the company. The magazine, called "Swide"—a made-up word meaning, sort of, wider than wide—is mostly self-promotional now, but Mr. Gabbana has a short list of rival designers he wants to write about, including Peter Som, Graeme Black and Rodarte. Ms. Olsen says she is now receiving offers from other designers to create similar online magazines.

Dolce & Gabbana decided to go beyond live-streaming their runway last weekend and videotaped the entire scene from multiple angles. Cameras were everywhere—on the street, on the runway recording guests taking their seats, and backstage, showing Mr. Dolce inspecting each model head to toe in the line-up. In addition to the Web, all this activity was blasted onto 28 video screens in the theater where the show was held.

Backstage after the show, blogger Bryan Boy, who resides in Manila, savored his access. "Dolce & Gabbana is really pushing the limits," he said, noting that he's attending other shows this season, but rarely in the front row. "Marni gave me standing," he said, referring to an invitation that requires a guest to stand at the back of the room.

Some retailers downplay the significance of the seating arrangements. "In reality, the configuration of the space allows all to see well and in my opinion, other than people's egos, it is not a big deal," says Gerald Barnes, CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct.

But deciding whose ego to boost is a key signifier at the shows. If not, why give space to bloggers, who are, after all, just online filters?

Mr. Gabbana says he would "love" to start tweeting himself. But an adviser has said it's "too dangerous. He never knows what I might say."