Fashion Shows
A Fashion Show, or catwalk is when a brand gets models to wear and walk their clothes. Usually these are by “invite only” and include buyers, important celebrities, journalists, bloggers, photographers and all kinds of other media types.
In 2008 for example I was working with the brand Mila Schön, just when they relaunched the brand. They did a whole event, exhibit and fashion show to celebrate their anniversary “launch” and I got an invitation.
Oh my god.
This fashion show was massive and held in the beautiful Palazzo Reale di Milano (Royal Palace of Milan), which now houses art exhibitions and events.
Here are some pictures from that event, the lighting was just too much for my simple point and shoot camera and so all of the models and clothes turned out like glowy magical ghosts. The picture of the staircase is from Wikipedia and the picture of the outside is from coolhunter.it.
Not just major bands host fashion shows. There are a ton of smaller brands that do this as well, but their shows never make it onto tv or in magazines. However, their fashion shows are important for their buyers, or to produce photographs for their website or catalogue. Having a fashion show also gives a new designer major credibility.
Sometimes there are fashion shows that even the smallest of brands organize, usually in conjunction with a fashion tradeshow. Where the Fashion Tradeshow provides the marketing, publicity and space, and the invitation is a little more open just to get bums in seats and get the designer some more exposure.
For example in 2011 Peter Petrov, an emerging Ukrainian born designer, who currently lives and works in Vienna, was invited by the Tranoï (a Paris fashion Tradeshow) administration to have his first show.
The show was in the basement of the Palais de la Bourse, which was the historic location of the Paris stock exchange and is now used for special events and tradeshows.
Basically they set up seating and an open area where the models were able to walk. It was a pretty nice space, a totally different experience than the big fashion shows, but it was still magical.