Banning Fashion From Your Feed
Design houses are throwing unofficial surprise parties; throwing havoc into the established fashion format. Once dependable as activewear and comfy as UGGs, now it's as imaginative, mesmerising and (sometimes) uncomfortable as couture.
'Design' has spilled past the pinpoint of the business product, to engulf every observable nod and wink by the business in the face of consumers. Nods and winks sound subtle, yet impressionable, often cumulatively forming something impressive - the foundations for campaigns and shows.
Curation cuts designers from the mould as they present their wares on their own terms. First came the fan-fair of Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci’s latest resort presentations: magnetising social-media. There's the instant gratification of see-now-buy-now shows (or specific items within a collection), like at Rebecca Minkoff, Banana Republic, and Diane von Furstenberg. All signs pointing toward a more consumer-friendly calendar.
Yet some designers are doing the opposite, dramatically disconnecting, by banning social media at their Fashion Week events. Turning the tide, new tacts are making tracks towards the tried-and-true traditional surprise; where sensation springs from secrecy. From striving for 'reach' to keeping under 'wraps'.
Michael Kors, this week, imposed a social media ban on his resort showing.
“We feel our clients and fans will love getting a sneak peek of the collection as opposed to inundating them with too much imagery too soon,” Kors told the Daily Front Row.
“Ultimately, this is all about creating more excitement when the product is available.”
It isn’t surprising that designers are moving to embargo their presentations (which is exactly what Kors is doing until the collection drop in stores October of this year) as consumers are – dare we say it – overly familiar with collections before they’ve hit stores.
Alexander Wang announced similar plan of attack for his resort presentation this season, allowing buyers and press to view the collection then placing an embargo on the images and reviews until the collection hits stores in November.
“For several seasons now, we have released images of our T by Alexander Wang and Men’s collections only at the time of their delivery in store,” Wang told WWD.
“We have had a very positive response to this from consumers and we decided to pursue a similar strategy with our ready-to-wear pre-collections; we have found that this shortened timeline between seeing the collection and it being available in stores creates a sense of immediacy and generates excitement at the retail level.”
"Put back your phone and enjoy the show," the invite read, according to WWD.
The New York Times' Vanessa Friedman recently examined the smartphone's role in the demise of the traditional Fashion Week format: "After being inundated by images and livestreams from runway shows, from awards shows where the items are worn mere days after they appear on the runway, and from ad campaigns (and the making of ad campaigns), by the time these customers see the clothes in stores, the dresses and skirts and suits seem tediously familiar. Old. Over." But social media has also allowed designers brand-new ways to share (or add a fresh aspect to a more traditional presentation format), like Misha Nonoo's first-of-its-kind Insta-Show for spring '16 or Wes Gordon's cinematic (and social-only) vignettes for fall '16. The Instagram format allowed Nonoo to connect with her large online-shopping audience — and cemented her decision to skip this season altogether in order to refocus her business. Social media is certainly the speediest way for the general public to access runway images; and access (read: inclusivity) is a huge topic of conversation in the fashion industry in recent seasons. Yet, even the front row tends to watch a show through a screen, thanks to the perpetual quest for that perfect Insta shot or Snapchat story. There's a fine line between overexposure and inacessibility when it comes to social media's relationship with the catwalk.
The proliferation of social media has radically changed the landscape of contemporary fashion – from Instagram ‘It’ girls being signed to agencies and landing major ad campaigns, to influencers being valued according to the number of followers they have as opposed to their levels of expertise or years of experience. Fashion images – be they magazine covers or images from runway shows – are seen first, and by the greatest audience, on Instagram and other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Social media has, in many respects, become fashion’s frontline.
Giorgetti proclaims it's not about being ‘cool’. "It’s about the clothes and an experience. I don’t want my clothes to be a catalyst for people’s selfie-taking”, he said.
Whether or not his anti-social media stance is something that catches on, time will tell. we’ll have to wait and see.
