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Abstract
From minimalist installation to monumental set design, runway scenography is now central to the grammar of fashion communications. Often used to symbolize the power of the brand or to reaffirm its DNA, the strategic choices of setting, space, and set design are an integral part of the promotion of designer fashion. Today’s runway show does not simply present a collection of clothes against a background set design; it uses scenography more instrumentally as the setting for brands and digital influencers to capture images of fashion for followers of online social media. Architectural paradigms now feed into the symbolic discourse of branded fashion and influence the way in which collections are spectacularized for different audiences. This article analyses the strategic use of runway scenography as a key part of contemporary branded communications, exploring specifically how the creative synergies between fashion and architecture are being reshaped by the impact of digital social media, in particular by Instagram.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Defined in opposition to utopia, the notion of heterotopia was first developed by Foucault in a lecture (for the Cercle d’Études architecturales de Paris) on space given in 1967, in which the philosopher outlined the criteria and principles of heterotopias as spaces with the ability “to juxtapose in a single real place several emplacements that are incompatible in themselves”
2 Caroline Evans first drew on Nora’s concept of ‘memory places’ in the context of her history of the material traces of the first couture houses (Evans Citation2013, 139–140).
3 This technique of recycling the set design is reminiscent of Martin Margiela’s second show in 1989, for which the first model wore a white cotton vest made from material covered in footprints from the runway of his previous show, where the models’ shoes were dipped in fresh paint (Samson and Saillard Citation2018: 14). As Jill Gasparina remarks, Margiela’s gesture takes us back to the artistic performances of Yves Klein at the end of the 1950S, when the artist used the bodies of his naked female models as paint brushes (Gasparina Citation2006, 42). While Klein transformed a live performance into a still painting, Margiela transformed the set into a garment.
4 This branded investment in space design is also popular with the fashion press, which publishes an ever-greater number of articles on the subject of runway scenography rather than focussing uniquely on the designs themselves. See, for example, “L’incroyable set du défilé Givenchy haute couture printemps-été 2019” (Rogers Citation2019), “Les plus beaux décors de défilés femme printemps-été 2019” (Guénon des Mesnards Citation2018), or “Fashion Week Set Design: Three Top Designers Reveal Their Inspiration” (Ilyashov Citation2019).
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Notes on contributors
Silvano Mendes
Silvano Mendes is associate lecturer in Fashion Communications at ESMOD and Sorbonne Nouvelle, journalist and PhD Candidate in Fashion Studies at IFM/Panthéon Sorbonne. He has contributed to academic books and journals such as International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect, 2017), Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption (Routledge, 2015) and Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis (Routledge, 2013).