FASHIONING THE FUTURE
We entered a new decade with a challenge no one expected. Forced to evolve, brands are looking at creative ways to present their creations
IT’S HARD TO START A CONVERSATION these days without first addressing the state of the world we find ourselves in. The novel coronavirus has claimed over 650,000 lives, with numbers continuing to rise as economies gradually reopen for business. Meanwhile, the world is bracing itself for one of the worst ever recessions. Every entity ‒ corporate or individual ‒ will have to think about their way forward in these uncertain times.
The autumn/winter 2020 women’s fashion week that Paris hosted was notable for marking the end of normalcy. It was plagued by various problems related to COVID-19 ‒ which had by then ceased to be some vague, distant problem that would go away. Italy went into lockdown soon after due to rampant infection and escalating fatalities. Now, travel is near impossible and brands have been forced to rethink how they can present their collections. Before that, designers have had to create collections remotely, with virtual team meetings in lieu of actual ones. This unusual process was unprecedented, and has yielded some rather interesting results.
Hermès
Hermès was among the first to present its SS21 men’s collection in the digital realm. Previous Hermès menswear shows have relied heavily on the live atmosphere to establish the collection’s tone. The one held at the Mobilier National last summer, for instance, was a breezy affair set in a courtyard. It used an assortment of chairs from the Mobiliers archive to highlight the relaxed, summery vibe that menswear director Véronique Nichanian was after.
This time, the season’s clothes were showcased in a live performance conceived by theatre director Cyril Teste. The collection was presented in the foyer of Les Arteliers Hermès, which Teste made extensive use of. Every square inch of space from elevators to corridors was involved for this live performance, which blurred the line between reality and fantasy. The surrealistic exercise brought the viewer to an imagined backstage fitting with Nichanian hard at work, although the focus was clearly on the clothes and accessories. Cameras panned and zoomed to guide the eyes to different details, such as a barely there chaine d’ancre motif, or a contrasting under collar, or an airy cotton shirting. These beautiful details would have been lost on the runways, and only appreciated in the showrooms open to trade insiders and members of the press.
Teste also deliberately included the production crew in the performance, which made one question if what they were seeing was real. It must have taken countless rehearsals for the show to run without a hitch. It’s a reflection of the playfulness of the house ‒ a trait that it tempers with heart and intent.
Maison Margiela
John Galliano has been at the helm of Maison Margiela since 2014. The initial response to his hiring was uncertainty: how would the two seemingly disparate worlds align? Galliano has shown through thoughtfulness, ingenuity and his unparalled mastery of the craft that it is possible to bring a couture sensibility into the grungy, do-ityourself universe of Martin Margiela. This has been retained for the Fall 2020 Artisanal collection, which was designed during lockdown and probably Galliano at his most carefree. To present it, a 52-minute documentary directed by Nick Knight was livestreamed in lieu of the usual runway show. The film is an inquiry with the subplot of a thriller, and pieced together Galliano and his team’s explorations and processes. Footage of his young cohort doing fittings on themselves, sewing toiles and doing research at home under quarantine was interspersed with recorded Zoom discussions, with recordings of the team’s return to the ateliers documenting their eventual transition back to normalcy.
The editing conveyed an urgency to the process, but also captured the stream-of-consciousness approach that saw thoughts bouncing freely off team members before evolving into something quite unexpected. Galliano has opined that this could become the blueprint for how Maison Margiela presents its collections in the future. It’s strangely intimate, and offers a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes. By allowing the spectator to be a part of the process, the brand is engaging with the viewer in ways that a typical runway show simply cannot.
LOEWE
A Show In A Box was Jonathan Anderson’s proposition for Loewe’s Spring 2021 men’s collection. On the day of the ‘show’, a box was delivered to members of the press. It contained the various elements that make up a traditional runway show, from looks that came printed on perforated cards that one could fold into threedimensional displays, to a seven-inch vinyl record complete with a cardboard turntable with which to play it on, to actual fabric swatches from the collection.
The idea was to replicate the experience of attending a fashion presentation through these interactive elements. Discovering the contents of the box felt a little like play time, as the process of physically assembling the items to create one’s own Loewe show experience didn’t quite seem like work. This physicality was really what made the show-in-a-box so sucessful. To have that tactile connection at a time when we are all craving for some sort of intimacy was a relief. To know that life may never return to the way it was but creativity and thoughtfulness can still connect the industry was also comforting.
The second part of the experience played out online; Loewe presented a series of films, which ranged from tutorials on creating your very own Loewe top (the pattern is free to download from Loewe.com), to live performances and even meals hosted by the brand’s creative director Jonathan Anderson. Again, these “events” narrowed the gap between the brand and its audience. On another level, they also engaged and inspired. AM