A basic principle was reaffirmed during New York Fashion Week - there's safety in numbers. It was definitely a "the more, the merrier" situation at the "Vogue World" event, for example, that took place on Monday in lower Manhattan to celebrate the fashion Bible's 130th anniversary.
A first-of-a-kind event (open to the public, but ticketed and with a limited number of free tickets for students), it featured designs from the A/W 22 collections of a wide range of fashion houses and labels going from luxury houses à la Dior, Valentino and Gucci to younger designers and on-the-rise talents such as Christopher John Rogers, Collina Strada and Matty Bovan.
As a whole, it was a sort of updated and commercial (some looks were shoppable) parade-like version of the 1973 Battle of Versailles, without real contenders, besides it was a way to celebrate a return of fashion in full-force after all the disruptions brought in the last three years by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently retired tennis champion Serena Williams opened the show in a resplendent silver gown-cum-cape by Balenciaga, but more stars and VIPs followed, from supermodels Naomi Campbell and Imaan Hammam to Lil Nas X, who did a surprise performance.
In between BMX riders, dancers, and other assorted shenanigans, this extravaganza revealed that the real call of Condé Nast Chief Content Officer Anna Wintour may be Broadway (how the hell did she manage to convince Mikhail Baryshnikov to take it to runway and dance along it, will remain a mystery).
That said, the show was at times chaotic and, well, desperately commercial. There is actually another reason why there should be a celebratory parade at Vogue: last week, Condé Nast workers won recognition under the NewsGuild of New York of a company-wide union.
In March Condé Nast staffers highlighted the need to form a union that may have regulated better pay and workloads. For months they continued campaigning and finally they got what they wanted in September - a union that will cover more than 500 U.S.-based employees, but also 100 subcontractors (or "permalancers" – employees originally hired on a freelance basis on a fixed-term contract, but who have become permanent, yet they do not necessarily enjoy the same benefits and job stability granted to a full-time employee). The real job for the company and the union starts now as they will have to start bargaining over employment conditions.
So, while the "Vogue World" event was a collective celebration of a magazine's anniversary, Fendi's Resort 23 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom on the first day of the fashion week, was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the "Baguette" bag.
The "Baguette" has a special connection with New York, it is indeed almost an uncredited character in the "Sex & the City" series. Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw made it famous by telling a robber demanding her sequinned Fendi bag that it wasn't a bag, but "a Baguette."
For this special occasion, Fendi co-creative directors Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi collaborated with Tiffany & Co. Fendi is a LVMH brand, but, since 2020, also Tiffany has become part of the conglomerate's portfolio.
As we easily foresaw in a previous post, the brand is now being relaunched providing jewellery pieces for the fashion houses in LVMH portfolio. In this case, there were bracelets and layered necklaces, but also keychains with mini Baguette bags.
The jewelry brand also inspired designs in its signature teal-blue shade (including a satin jumpsuit unzipped down to the navel and covered with zippers and cargo pockets accessorised with a matching cap and donned by Bella Hadid) and diamond covered double-F logos on the bags.
But that wasn't all, folks: Marc Jacobs was also enlisted to design a segment of the collection. At the very end of the show Silvia Venturini Fendi, her daughter, the jewellery designer Delfina Delettrez, Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs, all came out on the runway. Besides, supermodel Linda Evangelista, current face of Fendi, joined them in a Tiffany blue opera cape accessorized with a silver Baguette bag. Surprisingly, the entire cast of the Cirque du Soleil wasn't called to fill in the remaining space (but I'd better tone done my sarcasm and avoid giving them ideas for the next overcrowded show...).
The more you looked at the crowded runway, the more you wondered if fashion is suffering from some kind of syndrome linked to horror vacui, in this case there was indeed a sort of innate desire to fill all possible voids on the runway maybe caused by clothes and accessories that weren't extremely original nor innovative.
Fashion-wise the show was a celebration of '90s moods with boiler suits, fleece vests, sweatshirts, bucket hats and clogs, with supercommercial logomania prevailing especially in the Marc Jacobs segment (check out the Fendi logo clear plastic poncho and his signature block letter intarsias reading "FendiRoma"). Built-in Baguettes were everywhere, from beanies to gaiters, and even pockets were shaped like Baguettes. The infamous "It" bag was also turned into bum bags and backpacks.
One trick that may have shone - the tulle overlay tailoring (that can sometimes be spotted in museums to preserve delicate clothes and suits) - was lost in a sea of sequined skirts and Tiffany blue.
Such grand shows may be fun to watch, but do have some serious consequences: first and foremost, collectively distracted by the collaborations, the celebrities on the runway and in the front row (in this case Kim Kardashian, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Moss among the others), we forget to talk about the clothes and accessories in detail, we do not pay attention to materials, textiles and textures.
Many magazines nowadays prefer to publish a series of images of runway shows, accompanied maybe by a few lines to mention general moods and inspirations, but there aren't too many in-depth pieces about shows anymore. As a consequence, we are not educating the next generation of fashion writers, or maybe we are educating them to spot celebrities rather than bias cuts.
Last but not least, we are probably sending out the wrong message to young people studying fashion as we are telling them that they may come up with the most extraordinary piece, but they will be judged from the numbers of collaborations or celebrities they manage to score.
Yes, it is true, brands and houses that embark in such grand shows get great social media revenues, but, at the end of the day, they do not produce a memorable extravaganza à la Thierry Mugler, but a branding experience. Tiffany may have used this runway to introduce us the next Elsa Peretti, rather than to a vapid jumpsuit in Tiffany blue, and that would have been something to be happy about, but sadly, it didn't happen.
So, what should we be telling to students or young designers? Well, just ignore all the celebrity shenanigans and focus on your work, find your identity and opt for quality and originality, research and innovation. Only if your work is strong and powerful you will be able to avoid the overcrowded runway finale and have the luxury of hiding behind your designs like Martin Margiela did, living a peaceful existence thereafter.
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