Fashion shows have never attracted the diversity of gallery art openings, not to mention rock concerts. Mostly I have steered clear, preferring the “found” fashion show that is the Bedford Avenue station on the L subway line here in Williamsburg. What is the fashion equivalent of a white box, a space where the designer’s aesthetic can be displayed without distraction? Who can help being intrigued by the space designed for Prada in Seoul by Rem Koolhaas/AMO? This is especially true for a commentator enjoying the hospitality of the nydesignroom Web site. At the nydesignroom space, a vigorous conversation can often be detected between architecture (materials, structure) with the aesthetics of the human figure and the requirements of social dress. The products and selections echo these voices.
GGrippo shares my ambivalence about fashion shows. While I would quibble about their elitism and issues of access, he might focus more on critiquing stodginess and convention. His own 2005 fashion show in the MALBA in Buenos Aires was more an art installation than a marketing platform. (People still wanted to wear and did buy the clothes). The other day, Grippo exclaimed, “I want to do a runway show.”
The drive to make actual a full and near ideal expression of design sentiment characterizes the practitioners of every art form—even the applied arts. Hence, a show. However, in my opinion, a fashion show with or without runway needs a space that provides a hint of the actual settings where flesh-and-blood human beings will actually wear the clothes.
Innovative temporary spaces for displaying fashion are very fine. However, for myself, I might be more interested in viewing collections on models making their way down the street amidst all the people who with greater or less success present their own fashion show of one to the world every day. That might be a very democratic test of how successful a collection is in pointing the way to a fashion future and inspiring adoption.
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