Catwalk, The catwalk through which the models circulate during a fashion parade, derives from the scaffolding by which cats with innate agility moved. The name was used where scaffolding existed – in the shipping industry, in the works and in the theatrical scenographies – and only from the fifties began to be linked to fashion. Today those corridors decide much of the parade. And they have sophisticated to become one of the essences of the presentation of the new collections. Also in one of the boldest architectural interventions, sometimes discussed, and always ephemeral in the world.
The exhibition Catwalk, The Art of Fashion Show He will show, in the – until February 15 and then in the – almost a century of evolution in the catwalks. Of the first parades – of the hand of the mannequins in the workshops of the designers – to the catwalks as the prelude to the fashion weeks. Also, as of 1960, the transformation of the parades into.
The place where the change was presented marked the change. They knew how to see – when he spoke of space fashion – when the potential exploded punk From dress or when, much more recently, in 2019, he parade the models with the new Jacquemus collection by a path traced in a Marseille lavender camp.
In the nineties, the decade of the ‘supermodels’, two things happened. The presentation of fashion became a global show and, at the same time, there were several designers who sought to subvert that system. or the firm saw the potential of the challenge. It was about breaking, not only with the new collection but also with its container, any expectation. And the container was the first contact to announce that break: the catwalk was the announcement.
After the (OMA) for its stores and presentations or Valentino with, the challenge of the novelty took advantage of an architectural classic: the surprise. Jacquemus succeeded. The show had begun no more. The firm Fendi used the Great Chinese wall and one of the presentations of its collection. The impact architecture was reduced to a very ephemeral use, just 15 minutes.
This sample relates fashion not only to architecture, but also with music, scenery and theatrical representation by raising the parades almost as “a total work of art”, an exercise of collaboration that goes far beyond haute couture. And of the whim: the exhibition reveals how the parades portray social changes and transformations in beauty ideals.
After its premiere at the Vitra Design Museum, the exhibition will travel to V & A Duende in Scotland. Kirsty Hassard and Svetlana Panova, from this museum, have curated the exhibition with Jochen Eisenbrand and Katharina Krawczyk of the Vitra Design Museum.
