There are many words that define the moment in which fashion is publicly presented: fashion show, catwalk, runway. Between all the semantic possibilities, which involve nuances and references both to history, to the kind of movement performed – it is difficult to chose the one which is able to define what actually goes on, every six months – or, I rather say, more and more often – on the stages that fashion colonises. To pin down the term that can actually gather all the different expressions, I’d go for fashion show, which holds together the idea of an exposition, be it still or in movement, of clothes which represent a flair, a style.

Fashion shows were actually not as ‘narrative’ as we consider them today. They were born to gather buyers and journalists and inform them of what a fashion house was producing. They are the tri-dimensional evolution of the circulation of plates and aimed mostly at enlarging the area of commercial influence. Fashion shows, for some countries – as Italy in 1951 – came up as a moment to showcase national identity; and that’s how they are seen today by the so-called upcoming fashion cities. The story behind fashion shows is complex and layered, but just stopping at the surface – that is, at their appearance as spectacle – is interesting to get some clues about the directions of design today.

What emerged as an economic tool has rapidly become advertorial, and then opened up to the myriad of possibilities that the stage offers; and what kind of ‘animal’ are fashion shows becoming now? The question arises after the latest fashion month – and, most of all, the Parisian spot – which has pushed the boundaries between fashion show and performance art, blurring the lines more and more. While most of the shows followed the ‘regular’ format of the catwalk, just reflecting upon the space in which models had to move, some designers have exploited the potential of the fashion show as a moment highly regarded by the press and the public. Rick Owens sent out couples of models-performers bounded up, one actually ‘wearing’ the other; they were not professional models though, and their bodies were informed of their profession, and far from the typical fashion silhouette. What Hussein Chalayan did was not even a catwalk: two models standing still in the middle of a crowded room were literally showered with water, which acted like a solvent on the clothes they were wearing, revealing other clothes underneath the first layer. I don’t know if the world ‘performance’ suits these kind of events, though. It is not just a matter of ‘like or hate’ anymore: fashion shows seem to be trying to become a meta-narrative operation, which waits for the reception and above all for the participation of the public to be complete. Nevertheless, they still portray something that is neither replicable nor empathic, and they present a reality that is true just within the border of fashion experimentalism. The participation of the public is surely central, above all considering the impact of social media not only on fashion as a show, but also on fashion as a product, but the positions and hierarchies are still very defined.

What is negated by these very actions that fashion practitioners are staging is indeed the materiality of fashion; it is not an economic matter anymore: fashion is a pretext to produce actions that surely do not want to be a mere showcase, nor they are meant to be just for a public of professionals; but also, they are not just highly ‘instagrammable’ moments, which get their value by the number of thumbs-up they receive on social networks. Even if, in the Chalayan show, clothes are actually the centre, we are not looking at them as a product, but as part of a process, a metaphor for the intricate relationship between instability, change and authenticity. The core problem is, then, what role do clothes have in this evolution of the runway? Does their design match with the shape of their presentation? Does it come before or after the idea of the show? What is clear is that these operations are re-defining the meaning of fashion itself as a wide platform in which clothes are just one of the elements that define design as a practice, and design as a spectacle.

The concept of the fashion show, being as simple as it can be, hasn’t changed for years. Even though it involves a lot of planning, a large amount of resources and energy, it all comes down to a model walking up and down a runway showcasing the clothes. But, just like every other element of fashion business, runways make designers stand apart in the crowd. Thus, what is that secret ingredient that really turns a show into a memorable one? For the Spring/Summer 1999 collection Alexander McQueen had a model in a minimalistic white dress rotate in front of two robotic arms which spray painted the dress in different colors. It was a moment when technology fused with fashion history, adding to the eerie quality of McQueen’s clothes and making the collection stand out in the crowded fashion week schedule.

With the surprise factor being ever more difficult to obtain only through clothes, designers are now looking to change the way fashion shows are presented. Last year, Rick Owens had his spring collection dance down the runway by step dancers in a spectacular show that enticed many, changing, at the same time, the perception of what a runway show could be. With a simple, yet out of the box approach, the collection was given a fierce spin. On the other spectrum of runway innovation, this season’s Lanvin collection turned out to be the talk of town by distancing the fear of aging from the center of fashion industry. The renowned fashion house had Violetta Sanchez — Helmut Newton’s 80s muse — open the show, while it also featured other catwalk veterans in their thirties and forties, including Kirsten Owen and Amber Valletta. Walking alongside younger girls, they captured the elegance of the clothes exquisitely and showed that age is just an insignificant number.

Today, fashion has shifted from an elitist business to something everyone can enjoy. The same can be said about fashion shows. They have become an entertainment business for the masses, whith models running up and down the runway simply not being interesting enough. The runway has gradually become increasingly more dramatic, with elaborated scenery – the master of which is certainly Karl Lagerfeld with his exuberant shows for Chanel. While the runway models are getting a (slightly retro) update, it appears that the evolution of the fashion show can hardly stop there.