I won’t bore you to death reiterating the endless cliches on the (unavoidable, and quite disruptive) elephant in the room this year. For decades, the fashion weeks around the globe have been the epicentre around which the fashion industry orbits. But when international travel is frowned upon and large crowds are on par with signing a death warrant – how do we celebrate the spirit of fashion in 2020?
This year fashion houses are having to re-invent how they showcase their final expression of this season’s collection - unless you’re Chanel, because why let a global pandemic change how you do things if you can’t even change up the collections you put out? Each brand’s re-envisioning of their presentation of their collections has been varied – from Burberry’s pine forest to Mugler’s music video. Yet despite these small creative pearls produced by the pressure of the pandemic, there’s a collective feeling among us all that something feels amiss. It feels as though the industry and it’s followers are stood in the kitchen of the family home, each clutching a cup of tea (or for some of us, a glass of red), in deep discussion about the worrisome teenager upstairs. But, we’re trying to have an intervention in something we have no say in.
This tiny microorganism has meant that now, regardless of who you are and where in the world you are, you can be sat on the front row of a show – well, given that you have access to a screen and a stable internet connection. So shouldn’t we be celebrating that now, we all have access to that first look - even if we don’t have a sleek bob and perpetual sunglasses? Especially given it’s non-autonomously dissembling the same culture of exclusivity which has cultivated a toxic air within the industry over the decades.
As someone who has never so much as had a glimpse at a runway in the flesh – I’m intrigued to why I am feeling this niggling feeling of loss. Having not changed the way I would have watched the shows, if anything I’ve gained from the situation. There’s a certain demand on designers and their teams to re-capture the lost atmosphere of a traditional show with enhanced visuals; through stretching previous realms of videography, music and set design. So for the mere mortal like myself, the fashion weeks that I’m now consuming are far more tailored to online viewing than ever before.
Maybe the small sense of grief comes from the lack of audience. For me, part of watching a runway is watching the front row too. It adds another layer to not only the atmosphere of the show, but also to the way in which I analyse the collection. The ripples and reverberations of the audience in response to different looks, it gives you an opinion other than your own to weigh up what that look is evoking within you.
Even in the absence of a runway presentation, we’ve been graced with some artistically incredible lookbooks from the likes of Charles Jeffrey and Dries Van Norton. And it’d be a crime not to mention the wonderfully unconventional offerings from Moschino’s puppet display to J W Anderson’s paper cut-outs - these are perhaps a reflection of how the pandemic has felt reminiscent of being grounded as a child to some of us.
I’m finding the huge variations of each house’s route of presentation incredibly stimulating, it cracks the monotony of the digital world a little. This is hugely important if this pivotal fashion content is to avoid getting lost in the noise of our already-cramped social media feeds. It feels so frustrating that for years we’ve been lectured on how awful our phones and technology are for us, for it now to be the only outlet to normality we have. If we weren’t reliant on technology and the digital world before, we certainly are now.
I think most forms of mourning are a waste of time - this one especially. I think rather than focus on what has been lost this year, we should be reflecting on the fundamentals of fashion. The escapism and the fantasy of fashion haven’t gone anywhere - and I think now more than ever we need that in our lives. I think it’s a premature Christmas miracle that we even got a Spring/Summer ’21 collection this year given the logistical work alone that goes into producing a collection. And that alone excites me, if designers can still produce captivating collections whilst still wrestling with a global pandemic, then to think of what will come next makes me tingle with hope.
As ever, thank you for reading x
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