Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase an upcoming line of clothing. In a typical show, models walk the catwalk dressed in the clothing created by the designer, and the order in which each model walks out is usually planned according to the statement the designer wants to make about the collection. Some shows take the form of installations, where models are static, standing or sitting in a constructed environment. Contemporary designers often produce shows as theatrical productions with elaborate sets and added elements such as live music or technological components like holograms.
History
Because "the topic of fashion shows remains to find its historian," the earliest history of fashion shows remains obscure.
In the 1800s, "fashion parades" periodically took place in Paris couture salons.
American retailers imported the concept of the fashion show in the early 1900s. The first American fashion show likely took place in 1903 in the New York City store Ehrlich Brothers. By 1910, large department stores such as Wanamaker's in New York City and Philadelphia were also staging fashion shows. These events showed couture gowns from Paris or the store's copies of them; they aimed to demonstrate the owners' good taste and capture the attention of female shoppers.
By the 1920s, retailers across the United States held fashion shows. Often, these shows were theatrical, presented with narratives, and organized around a theme (e.g. Parisian, Chinese, or Russian). These shows enjoyed huge popularity through mid-century, sometimes attracting thousands of customers and gawkers.
In the 1970s and 1980s, American designers began to hold their own fashion shows in private spaces apart from such retailers. In the early 1990s, however, many in the fashion world began to rethink this strategy. After several mishaps during shows in small, unsafe locations, "[t]he general sentiment was, 'We love fashion but we don't want to die for it,'" recalls Fern Mallis, then executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. In response to these shows, the New York shows were centralized in Bryant Park during fashion week in late 1993.
Learn more about Fashion Shows. You can read about Fall Fashion Shows and Spring Fashion Shows. While you are at it, you can learn about runway shows...
The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fashion_show Modified by Apparel Search 4/11/09
Here are a few fashion show terms that may help you learn more about runway events: Catwalk, Couturier, Ready To Wear, Supermodels, fashion journalism, Fashion Show Definition
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The way an outfit is presented on the catwalk is not necessarily the way a designer expects people to wear the clothes in everyday life. A show look can be an intellectual and artistic construction, built to present an idea clearly rather than to be copied whole. That places a double task on the audience. Buyers, editors and guests must first understand what the designer is trying to say through the presentation, and then visually deconstruct each outfit, separating the styling from the garments so they can appreciate the detail and craftsmanship of every piece. A coat worn over an unlikely combination may be making a point about proportion or colour; the coat itself, judged plainly, is what a store will order and a customer will wear.
This is why running order is a design decision. The first outfit sets the terms, the middle of a show develops them, and the final looks, often evening wear, state the collection at its most concentrated. A well-planned order lets a complicated idea arrive gradually. A poorly planned one leaves even strong clothes looking random. Installations change the task again: with models static in a constructed environment, viewers can walk around a garment, see its back, and judge construction at close range, trading the drama of movement for inspection.
The early history of fashion shows is obscure, and the topic still awaits its historian, but the outline is clear. In the 1800s, fashion parades took place periodically in Paris couture salons, where a house showed its designs to its own clients. American retailers imported the concept in the early 1900s. The first American fashion show likely took place in 1903 in the New York City store Ehrlich Brothers. By 1910, large department stores such as Wanamaker's in New York City and Philadelphia were also staging shows. Those events showed couture gowns from Paris or the store's copies of them, aimed to demonstrate the owners' good taste and to capture the attention of female shoppers.
By the 1920s, retailers across the United States held fashion shows. They were often theatrical, presented with narratives and organised around a theme such as Parisian, Chinese or Russian, and they enjoyed huge popularity through mid-century, sometimes attracting thousands of customers and onlookers. The department store show was entertainment that sold clothing: a shopper who had watched a gown move across a stage understood it differently from one who had only seen it on a rail. In the 1970s and 1980s, American designers began to hold their own shows in private spaces apart from retailers, taking control of presentation back from the stores. That independence set up the centralised fashion week model that followed in the 1990s, when the New York shows gathered in Bryant Park.
A wide range of contemporary designers produce their shows as theatrical productions, with elaborate sets and added elements such as live music or technological components like holograms. Theatre serves the collection when it sharpens the idea the clothes are making: a set can place garments in the world they were designed for, and music can set the pace at which they are read. It works against the collection when the spectacle is remembered and the clothes are not. The balance is a professional judgement, and the shows that endure in fashion memory are usually those where set, casting, music and running order were all pulling the same idea in the same direction, so that deconstructing the outfits afterwards still leaves the statement intact.
A fashion show presents a designer's upcoming line of clothing to buyers, the fashion industry and the public. The running order is planned to make a statement about the collection, so the audience can understand the designer's idea and deconstruct each outfit's detail and craftsmanship.
Fashion parades took place periodically in Paris couture salons in the 1800s. American retailers imported the concept in the early 1900s, the first American show likely took place in 1903 at the Ehrlich Brothers store in New York City, and by 1910 large department stores such as Wanamaker's were staging shows.
In the early 1990s many designers held shows in small, unsafe private locations and several mishaps followed. As Fern Mallis of the Council of Fashion Designers of America put it, the sentiment was that people loved fashion but did not want to die for it, so the New York shows were centralised in Bryant Park during fashion week in late 1993.