Is
fashion entertainment? That is the question on everyone’s lips this year as the
dust begins to settle on the biggest month in the fashion calendar. Throughout
the cycle of SS15 shows, one debate in particular has been raging with several
of the industry’s journalistic elite weighing on social media to contribute their
views. One of the most publicised tweets comes courtesy of the Independent’s
fashion editor Alexander Fury, who claimed that “Fashion is not
entertainment. It is art. This is a business and these are trade shows, not a
three-ring circus”. His statement supports that of the renowned journalist
Suzy Menkes, who penned a 2013 article entitled ‘The Circus of Fashion’ as a
response to the rising presence of fashion bloggers in the show tents. In this
article, Menkes paints a picture of attention-starved fashionistas armed with
camera phones, lingering outside show locations ready to snap selfies with the
well-known attendees of the season’s biggest shows. She also forecasts the
‘fast-fashion’ ideology that is slowly becoming ubiquitous, an ideology
embodied by Jeremy Scott’s debut collection at Moschino which was available to
purchase from the minute the show went viral. Scott tapped into today’s
consumer society in a genius way by incorporating accessories such as
smart-phone covers into a collection priced from £35 upwards. By adjusting
price-points, he made high fashion accessible to those without the budget and
subsequently re-opened the debate as to whether fashion should be commercial or
exclusive.
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| Gareth Pugh's SS15 'Presentation' |
Fury’s initial comment that
fashion shows are created for commerce is arguably negated by designers such as
Gareth Pugh and Thom Browne, both of which staged fairytale presentations for
Spring/Summer 2015. Browne served us one of the week’s highlights with his
dreamy avant-garde garden-party, based around the tale of six sisters that
designed their own dress code for the week. It’s hard to argue that fashion
isn’t entertainment when we see models dressed in fantasy tailoring teetering
around the runway’s perimeter in stilts, or fantastical bird-cage headpieces
walking the runway. Some of fashion’s greatest designers have been showmen in
their own rights – think Galliano’s legendary ‘Diorent Express’ collection, or
McQueen’s paint-gun finale at his No.13 collection. It’s not unusual for
collections to feature showpieces which never become available to buy; instead
they are created for artistic purposes and featured in elaborate runway
presentations or loaned to museums for display. Whilst the commercial element
of fashion is always the most important, it’s hard to deny that entertainment
also plays a part.
