Fashion month through my eyes
So London Fashion Week has just finished.
A number of people have asked me why I haven’t gone to see any London shows and soak up the frantic fashion atmosphere. Before I started writing, I used to study at the London College of Fashion, a stone’s throw away from all the action, but I never attended LFW even when I thought I was going to be a future fashion designer. I’ll explain later, but first, let me give you an outline of what is happening right now in the fashion world;
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| Photograph by Tim Ireland, The Associated Press via The StarPhoenix |
Fashion month starts every February and September, it’s four weeks of catwalk shows hosted in four cities. The shows start in New york, then move to London, then Milan and finish in Paris. These cities are known as ‘the big four’ because they influence so much of the fashion industry, and are the main event of the season, gaining lots of media coverage. However smaller fashion weeks actually happen in cities all over the world throughout the year. This is just the ready-to-wear catwalk shows, there are also cruise, resort, and haute-couture collections to show during the year outside of this fashion month.
NEW YORK FASHION WEEK
September 10 - 17, 2015
LONDON FASHION WEEK
September 18 - 22, 2015
MILAN FASHION WEEK
September 23 - 29, 2015
PARIS FASHION WEEK
September 30 - October 7, 2015
Various highlights of fashion month will dictate what the general public will see in the future as trend edits on the high street. Watered-down ‘consumer friendly’ versions inspired by original catwalk designs seen now, will be popping up on our high streets just before spring 2016, perhaps as soon as February, which is when there is another fashion month and all eyes will be on the catwalks again.
Here’s how it works in very simple and very idealistic terms:
1. Any standout detail that appears frequently in different shows will usually become a trend.
Fringe was seen on garments, namely maxi dresses at the Givenchy in New York. It then appeared at the Christopher Kane show in London. If finge keeps occurring throughout the next couple of weeks, then fringe is an important design feature of the fashion month, and most likely a future trend. Below is a beautiful slow-mo video from the Givency show by Eva Chen
2. Buyers for leading designer retail notice these trends, and so do fashion editors.
Buyers decide which designer looks are going to be sold from their respective shops. If a buyer sees fringe recurring at shows, they earmark these specific fringed designs to go into store for next season if it fits with the target market of their clients. The buyers know that if a design detail like fringe is seen in shows throughout the rest of the month, on celebrities and at parties, then magazine editors from leading fashion publications such as Vogue, will feature fringed garments as an influential trend story. It may perhaps be named as the ‘must-have’ piece of S/S 2016. Obviously different buyers have different end consumers and clients, therefore buyers can desire different looks from the same show.
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| A fringed look from the Christopher Kane Spring 2016 Show at LFW Via Vogue.com Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com |
3. People who love fashion buy fashion
The people influenced by the publications, will then be inspired to want fringed garments from whichever designer du jour to keep their wardrobe current. The people who can afford it, buy designer garments to freshen up their wardrobes and stay ‘in vogue’. This filters down into aspirational consumers - those interested in fashion, reading the catwalk edits and fashion magazines without the means to buy the big name designers who want to replicate the look and also be ‘in vogue’. So brands and high street shops cater to this market, and that's where we see high street trend edits that have their roots in the catwalk shows.
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| Photograph by Phil Oh via Vogue.com Sofie Valkiers and Elina Halimi attending the Burberry Prorsum spring 2016 show wearing Burberry Prorsum AW 2015 |
4. Whatever Chanel do shall be done.
The Chanel show in Paris is essentially the gospel in fashion terms. Chanel will set trends whatever happens. Even if their next collection was made from black bin liners with loads of interlocking C’s, people would love it and probably call it subversive and ironic and clever. Do you remember in the last few years when pearls on jewellery suddenly appeared in every shop everywhere? That was because of Chanel in 2013, showcasing their 2014 Spring Show featuring wild oversized pearl chokers.
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| Chanel 2014 S/S look via Vogue.com Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com |
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| Faux Pearl Choker Necklace found on asos.com |
Last Paris fashion week featured a beautiful suede coat dress in the Chanel A/W 2015 ready to wear show:
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| Chanel 2015 A/W look via vogue.com Kim Weston Arnold / Indigitalimages.com |
Presently, Topshop are selling a beautiful coat in their premium collection, it is pricey, but not quite as much as Chanel:
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| Premium suede trench coat from topshop.com |
Essentially what happens in fashion month is the top of the pyramid, with Chanel right at the top, setting future trends for ‘everybody’. The next few weeks are intrinsic to the ‘mainstream market’ versions of new trends to come in spring.
All this may sound ridiculous to you, but I find it fascinating to see these trends unfolding. It’s like finding the primary elements of things the general public will buy six months in the future.
5. People and parties
Obviously it’s not just about the clothes. Vast numbers of the high hitters within the fashion industry are all in one place, the shows and parties are an opportunity to network where useful contacts can be built up. Sometimes I think the clothing can get lost amidst the excitement of the next party and racing to the next show, seeing who wore what and where and what’s next. I see a lot of people trying to be cool and current, trying to fit in and be part of an exclusive world, especially on social media, like a big solar system where many planets are all vying for their opportunity to orbit the Sun. And don’t even get me started on front row politics. Go and read my first blog post if you are interested in ‘frow’ stuff and how that all works.
Furthermore, a lot of activity now happens at the entrance to shows where some people, (this is not everybody that attends fashion week, just a select few, many people look extra stylish for fashion week but are also dressed like themselves) dress purely with an intention to catch the eye of a photographer and be featured somewhere as part of a stylish round-up. I do love street style because it’s real life creative styling. However, if you are dressing up outrageously for the photographer, it’s not personal style, it’s personal broadcasting.
Sarah Harris is the fashion features editor at Vogue UK and has written an enlightening article on the way she chooses outfits for the fashion month. It really puts the hectic schedule into perspective and she understands that you have to dress to impress, but you also need to dress like yourself too.
How To Dress For The Shows
6. My approach
Personally I like live-streaming the shows. An immediate sense of atmosphere is gained watching a show as it happens. I can experience the music, the clockwork movement of model after model, and the innovation expressed by these new trendsetting clothes at the same time as the people in the front row. I can see what look turns heads in the audience and I find it really exciting.
As the show is live, no catwalk review has been published yet, so there is time to create my own opinion of a show. I really like forming my own ‘live’ opinion before any review, because even on the way to seeing the catwalk photographs online afterwards, it is so easy to stumble into twitter or catwalk round-ups which can influence initial gut feeling. Also, I can see the clothes, and see them good. If I were to attend LFW now, being a little fish in a vast fashion ocean, I would be standing right at the back, able to see a bobbing head, that’s not really what I’m after.
I tell you what I’m after: Seeing the London Daks show live, and witnessing a chiffon waterfall cuff sleeve peeking out from a ¾ sleeve suede coat. The sheer and fluid fabric gently undulating against the texture of the overcoat as the model takes each step. Seeing and understanding an example of an impeccable styling concept, nodding to the juxtaposition of contrasting fabrics alongside the new sleeve silhouette that has been created. Seeing the whole outfit from topknot to toe, and understanding what it is trying to achieve. Here is the look walking the runway for you to enjoy.
I am an advocate for taking the time to consider what you need from fashion, more than shopping on impulse. I think you should go with your gut more than what is on trend, and so I don’t know if I belong in the midst of LFW where trends are born. Also it's not that I'm taking myself too seriously, I bet it's so fun being there! It's just my gut is telling me I don’t belong there right now, perhaps this will change in future.
I’m not a buyer, editor, model, journalist, designer, stylist or even a frantic unpaid intern. I’m not even a 'fashion blogger' in the current sense of the word. I am writing a blog on the topic of fashion, because I find it fascinating. I feel that a better understanding of the way things work in fashion, helps us to make more informed decisions about what we choose to wear. No matter how cute that bag or dress was, to me, understanding why we desire what we desire will always be more compelling. I’m meant to be using my independent thoughts and opinions to create my own content, and I don't see how being swept up in London with the majority of the fashion world will give me something original.
Taking the time to process my personal response to a show rather than saying what I see instantly is an important part of my personal relationship to fashion, and therefore intrinsic to my writing on here. I can tell you now, that if I am swept away by a schedule of shows and parties, I’m not going to have time to write anything good. I admire those that can do this A LOT.
I’m not having a diva strop saying I won’t attend until I have an invitation to the front row, I’m just saying it’s a lot of faff to see clothes that I can see live online at the moment. Every twitter feed and fashion website is full to the brim doing their reporting anyway...It takes me about two weeks to process all the collections from a single fashion week! At home I can be in my pyjamas, with a cup of tea in my hand and go at my own pace. Which is great.
I hope I'm not coming across as bitter because that is not my intention at all. I love fashion week! I just want to listen to myself before listening to others swept away by the glamour and the speed of it all. So I’ve decided for now to create my own space where I get to make up my own mind before I am influenced by any fashion authority.
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