Of Fashion and Gatekeepers
A still from Alexander McQueen’s First Light, a film by the British director Jonathan Glazer to showcase Sarah Burton’s spring 2021 collection for the brand (image: Alexander McQueen).
A gatekeeper is, at their most benign, someone who prevents people entering without permission; at their most malign, they’re a person who has the power to determine who gets a particular resource or opportunity. Both forms of gatekeeper are regularly deployed in high-end fashion, either to keep someone out of a space, or else to restrict access to resources. They come in the guise of the security guard, press officer or magazine editor, to name just a few.
The gatekeeper is there to uphold the myth and mystique of an industry that profits from the creation of an image of a sole, genius creator; they make sure that access is only granted to those who can be trusted to uphold this vision. But in 2020, the gatekeepers lost some of their power. As the convulsions of the pandemic rippled across all sectors of society, the staples of the fashion industry were not immune. The fashion show, the launch and the press trip: all have been cancelled or reconsidered, like so many other events.
Although these events are normally for a precious few (read: buyers, fashion editors and celebrities), they are consumed by a wider public via photographs on social media and in mainstream press. Without the opportunity to invite people to chronicle these exclusive events for general consumption, they decline dramatically in value. Such is the strange equation of a system built on rubbing our noses in the fact that a majority of us do not have privileged access. The majority of us do not experience first-hand what is on the other side of the velvet rope. Instead, we live it through paparazzi shots, Instagram stories, or carefully orchestrated fashion shoots. They portray a fictional account of fashion that is focused on escapism. As Edward Enninful wrote on the launch of British Vogue’s July 2020 edition: “first and foremost, Vogue proudly waves the flag for fashion, in all its empowering, escapist, lavish and identity-affording capabilities.” In Vogue’s own words, it has not built a reputation for “chronicling the minutiae of everyday life”.
“The staples of the fashion industry have not been immune. The fashion show, the launch and the press trip: all have been cancelled or reconsidered, like so many other events.”
However, during multiple global lockdowns we have been faced with that minutiae of everyday life, every single day, without any practical means of escape. Even Vogue changed tack and featured three frontline workers on its July 2020 covers: a TFL train driver, a midwife and a supermarket attendant, all shot in their everyday uniforms. But what about the fashion brands that have built their whole existence on trading on exclusivity of access, with the careful choreography of the fashion show at its pinnacle? In a year when physical events are the antithesis of luxury and exclusivity, when excessive air kissing could be the literal kiss of death, and when sitting shoulder to shoulder with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people to watch models parade down a catwalk does not follow regulations around social distancing, what can replace this most sacred of fashion events? They are events that are as much, if not more, about the people seen to be attending, as they are about whatever happens to be displayed on the catwalk.
A look from Gucci’s Ouverture of Something That Never Ended, directed by Gus Van Sant and Alessandro Michele (image: Gucci).
Chanel faced this conundrum when showing its 2020/21 Metiers d’Art collection in December 2020. The event had been due to take place in front of a live audience at the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley, but new coronavirus restrictions suddenly changed the plan. “Theoretically, we could have had a large number of guests in the Château de Chenonceau,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel, to Vogue fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen. “That was the first objective: to come back to the experience and the emotion of these shows. We have no choice this time so we’ll do it differently.” The solution was to have an audience of just one: the actor and Chanel ambassador Kristen Stewart, filmed on her own in the Chateau enjoying a socially distanced catwalk of models, with creative director Virginie Viard coming out for a bow at the end to Stewart’s exuberant clapping. Despite the peculiar set-up of such an event, it was a hit with audiences on social media. A one-minute clip of the film has been watched over 12m times on Chanel’s Instagram account. It’s an interesting turn of the tables – what Pavlovsky emphasises as “the emotion of these shows”, hinting at the live physical experience, is clearly far inferior to bespoke digital content, at least in terms of the number of people reached. To put the December event into perspective, a recording of Chanel’s October 2020 show, which did allow for a regular- sized audience to attend, received approximately 700,000 views on the same platform.
So if the “emotion” of the fashion show is what fashion brands are pining to recreate, is an actual, physical show the answer? We’re only a month into the new year, but 2021 seems likely to be much the same as 2020 in regards to restriction of movement, physical distancing and limitations on larger events. In that context, the primary emotion attached to a live fashion show seems to become one of dread rather than exclusivity, with brands now developing a number of different formats in response.
“The primary emotion attached to a live fashion show seems to have become one of dread rather than exclusivity, with brands now developing a number of different formats in response.”
In November, New York-based fashion brand Proenza Schouler released a book that combined photography of its spring collection with incidental snaps of New York, all captured by photographer Daniel Shea. “We didn’t want what we did to disappear, to be this thing that was ephemeral and disappeared into the ether the minute it was over,” said designer Lazaro Hernandez, one half of Proenza Schouler, in a conversation about the book that streamed on YouTube. Hernandez’s partner Jack McCollough credited the book-format for some of the design decisions in the collection: “There’s something freeing about not having a show.”
Other brands have turned to film. In December, Alexander McQueen released First Light, a film by the British director Jonathan Glazer to showcase Sarah Burton’s spring 2021 collection for the brand. Filmed on the shores of the Thames at dawn, it tells the story of a Fagin-like gang (although all young adults) in romantic Victoriana-styled garb. Meanwhile, Gucci’s Ouverture of Something That Never Ended is a seven-part miniseries that launched in November to show the Gucci spring 2021 collection. Directed by Gus Van Sant and the Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, it offers a slow narration of a fictional day in the life of Italian actor Silvia Calderoni in a Dario Argento-style world – without the slaughter. “Which new horizons do arise when fashion leaves its comfort zone?” wrote Michele in a press statement around the launch of the series. “What life do clothes get when they stop walking down the catwalk? These are the questions that come to my mind in a present that is uncertain, but pregnant with premonitions.” However, despite both brands’ employment of critically acclaimed film directors, the results seem somehow dated and not entirely at ease with the forums in which they are aired. The numbers bear this fact out. At the time of writing, First Light had only 64,000 views on YouTube, while Gucci’s seven-parter failed to maintain audience interest. The first episode was viewed 2.6m times, but episode seven only 400,000 – a drastic decrease.
Balenciaga’s Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow video game (image: Balenciaga).
If fashion is future-facing and chiefly preoccupied with setting a tone for what is to come – in order to eventually trickle down to us mere mortals, as economist Thorstein Veblen claimed it does – none of these examples seem particularly visionary. Fashion film grew in prominence throughout the early 2000s, with emerging platforms such as Showstudio pushing the medium to new audiences. But the care and attention taken over them in regards to styling, make-up, set design and direction seem to run counter to a generation of viewers who binge on YouTube-streamed DIY films, TikTok dance moves, and Instagram Live. These forums are not about high production values, but instant gratification for either the maker or viewer. In the plethora of new experiments around showing fashion, there is, however, one brand that stood out for its willingness to adopt more experimental formats.
“Gucci’s Ouverture of Something That Never Ended offers a slow narration of a fictional day in the life of Italian actor Silvia Calderoni in a Dario Argento-style world – without the slaughter.”
Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow is a video game conceived by Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia and his team to showcase the 50 looks of the house’s autumn 2021 collection. Created with Unreal Engine, a software platform developed by Epic Games, Afterworld is set in 2031, in a city which seems an amalgam of parts of Tokyo, Beijing and New York. There are five levels to Afterworld and in each you encounter a number of avatars of actual people donning looks from the collection (each model and outfit having been meticulously 3D-scanned and transferred into the digital environment). The “game” is not a game in any real sense of the word (there’s no gameplay beyond looking at the collection), but it does borrow the language and aesthetic of games while inviting the player on a “hero’s journey” that starts in a Balenciaga store and ends atop a mountain at sunrise. The collection itself borrows from gaming culture and features armour, PlayStation logos and military fatigues. “I see a lot of potential in merging fashion with games,” said Gvasalia at the game’s launch, continuing: “and in-game shopping is certainly the tool to be considered in the near future.”
While the gatekeepers made sure that fashion insiders got a preview of Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow via specially distributed headsets, the experience of exploring the game is ultimately a personal and intimate one, regardless of whether you are a Balenciaga customer, fan of the brand, or Anna Wintour. As fashion writer Sarah Mower commented on Vogue Runway: “It’s an alternative to the ‘experiential’ destination travel the insider fashion world got so extravagantly involved with in the past few years –just going to a far more democratically open-to-all realm, minus the mass expenditure of flight carbon emissions.”
Balenciaga’s Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow video game (image: Balenciaga).
In fact, it is in this “open-to-all realm” where the most interesting recent high- end fashion initiatives have taken place – far away from any gatekeepers. In spring 2020, during the first round of global lockdowns, TikTok exploded with amateur knitters showing off copies of a patchwork cardigan by J.W. Anderson, as worn by Harry Styles. Rather than clamping down on the copycat phenomenon, Anderson released an open-source version of the intricate knitting pattern for all to enjoy. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, meanwhile, also offered an avenue for fashion brands to reach broader audiences in more democratic ways. Marc Jacobs, Valentino and Sandy Liang are all offering their collections for characters to wear within the game – an interesting departure in itself given that the cute, rotund and squat figures who populate Animal Crossing are a far cry from the tall and slender physique that fashion promotes as an impossible ideal. Continuing the trend of providing online avatars with fashionable choices, Gucci and The North Face just launched a collaboration with Pokémon Go, whereby players can visit specific PokéStopsto get branded T-shirts, backpacks and caps.
“The cute, rotund and squat figures who populate Animal Crossing are a far cry from the tall and slender physique that fashion promotes as an impossible ideal.”
However, for those who agree that high-end fashion is an art form as well as pure commerce, the spectacle of the fashion show is one of the key signifiers of this status. And while the multitude of interactions with gaming lends the fashion industry a charming face, it risks tipping the practice of this engagement with gaming culture into the realms of pure commerce, rather than also serving as a means of creative exchange. A Gucci backpack in Pokémon may be a fun novelty, but it does little to advance either field creatively – it’s simply a marketing exercise to further brand awareness with new or expanding audiences.
This is where Balenciaga’s Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow provides a sobering counter. By engaging with the art form of game-making on the level of creating its own gaming universe and utilising the visual language of gaming culture and the actual tools of game creation, Balenciaga has begun to probe where fashion actually sits in this new realm. By the look of it, it’s a domain that we will all become more familiar with in the coming months, as Zoom fatigue sets in and physical interaction is still some way off. Oh good gatekeepers of Balenciaga – hook me up to a VR headset now!
Words Johanna Agerman Ross
This article was originally published in Disegno #28. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.
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