The Show Must Go On
By Kristen Richardson and Isabelle Roberts
Fashion does not stop for anything — not even a global pandemic. This year, the spread of COVID-19 prevented top fashion designers from presenting their Spring 2021 collections in Bryant Park’s VIP runway shows for New York Fashion Week. Despite the obstacles faced by the haute couture industry in these times, these constraints boosted the creativity of those involved by successfully managing the production of a NYFW-grade virtual show.
In fact, how these trendsetters chose to present their designs may actually be more interesting than the garments themselves this season. Thanks to Runway360, CFDA's new streaming service for fashion week, Jason Wu was able to live stream his runway show. The designer hosted the show on the rooftop of Spring Tropics Studios.
Wu was inspired by Tulum and reflected that in a lush and tropical background for his performance. Without the live stream option, perhaps he would not have been so creative with his runway setting. After all, the streets of New York do not bear much in common with the tropics of Tulum.
The online era of fashion is enabling designers to execute contemporary themes and ideas, helping us leave traditional expectations from a fashion show in the past. Wu was not the only designer who realized New York Fashion Week no longer had to encompass the essence of New York City.
Christian Siriano made a runway out of his own backyard in his beautiful Westport, Connecticut home. His models splashed into his SS21 collection, elegantly walking on the water-covered runway on top of Siriano's pool. The show followed social distancing guidelines and required models and guests to wear masks.
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Coco Rocha, eight months pregnant, took a plunge in Siriano's pool wearing a red ballgown with a ruffled skirt that floated up behind her. This dramatic moment certainly got the word out about Siriano's show. Runway360 helped designers like Siriano and Wu display their innovative designs in a world of unsafe in-person social gatherings.
Time will tell if Runway360 remains relevant in the era of live streaming fashion shows.
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Some designers found the live stream approach more limiting than a pre-recorded video. Cynthia Rowley wanted her show to encompass her clothes and her city with a film titled "The Show Must Go On." The film remained relevant to the country’s current state by shining some light on New York City's small businesses, specifically outdoor restaurants.
Rowley highlighted the city's resilience with one t-shirt reading, "THE SHOW MUST GO ON”. The models in the video have the highest spirits, the widest smiles, and energetic dance moves. She even featured a live band to accompany the dancers.
For Rowley, the show did go on.
Tom Ford also decided to go down the video route and spotlight the challenges COVID-19 has presented to the fashion industry. "The thought of designing a collection seemed frivolous when so many important and disturbing things were happening in our world… All this, all dragged from spring into the summer, and as I think we could all feel a global depression [both financial and psychological] worsening, I thought about skipping the season altogether. After all, when no one can go out of their house, who needs new clothes?" Ford said.
However, the goal of his collection was to advocate for the light at the end of the tunnel. His clothes included bold prints, bright colors, eccentric pop star-like glasses, and oversized draped dresses and kimonos.
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"That is what this collection is for me: the hope of a happier time. It is still a somewhat casual moment related to fashion but a time in which we need clothes that make us smile. Clothes that make us feel good," Ford said.
Many designers turned to virtual look books, a pre-existing virtual format, as an alternative to the runway. PH5, Snow Xue Gao, and Marchesa Notte offered vastly different aesthetics within the same format. Inspired by the tragic Australian bushfires, PH5 shot their collection in the Awabakal land, originally home to Aboriginal Australians descended from the Awabakal tribe.
In contrast with PH5’s out-in-the-wild shots, Snow Xue Gao captured the quarantine comfort lifestyle by featuring a line of pajamas in his collection. He even shot a video of the indoor photoshoot. And the antithesis of stay at home-wear, Marchesa Notte’s digital look book featured gorgeous ball gowns.
Look books offered a trendy and safe alternative to the traditional runway show for a wide variety of designers.
Using augmented reality, Khaite may have given us a glimpse into fashion’s future. She combated social distancing with a unique approach of sending presentation boxes to 100 buyers and editors, enclosing a visual representation of the collection accessible via a scannable QR code. Khaite took this intimate fashion experience a step further by having hand-drawn QR codes in the look book photos that directed the viewer to khaite.com. From there, your phone camera and orientation are optimized for a 3D representation of Khaite's new shoes floating in your own home, making you feel like you’ve entered fashion week from an alternate dimension where fashion defies gravity. This creates an illusion of Khaite’s designs levitating in the viewer’s own home — a personalized, accessible, and COVID-19-safe experience for fully enjoying the Spring 2021 collection.
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Fashion will continue to change, evolve, and adapt to our modern-day reality. This season, designers proved their ability to step outside their comfort zone and forge forward despite the challenges they face when working with technologies in new and unexpected ways. But if 2020 has taught us anything, it is that if there's a will, there's a way.
