IS FASHION ENTERTAINMENT?

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.

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.

SS15 HIGHLIGHTS [SO FAR!]

As the dust began to settle around New York Fashion Week, its audience began to question whether or not this was the most innovative NYFW in recent history. New York is renowned for its emphasis on urban chic - luxe sportswear and high-end separates are usually the order of the day, leaving the melodrama for Paris. This season, however, things were markedly different thanks to a number of young designers ignoring traditional runway presentations in favour of something a little more interesting. Opening Ceremony, for example, cast stars such as Dakota Fanning and Rashida Jones to create a Fashion Week satire; one which raised eyebrows among the industry for its exaggerated depictions of fashion clichés. Elsewhere, Gareth Pugh moved his show from its usual Parisian setting to the Big Apple and Thom Browne created a typically fantastical setting for his S/S15 garden party. This season was packed with truly memorable shows and indicated that some designers are looking to move away from the 'trade show' mentality that has recently plagued the industry. We already have pre-collections, resort collections and diffusion lines to provide the commercial basics that keep the industry thriving - the runway is a platform for spectacle and it seems that, for the first time in a while, designers are ready to embrace it.