Brief history of fashion shows
In the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th the idea of presenting fashion collections on live models was born. Haute couture fashion designers would usually use actresses and dancers to show their clothes in their houses. They wouldn’t let photographers to attend in order to avoid leak of the designs.
Fashion weeks are a very important annual event that happens in fashion capitals around the world. The first one was in New York in 1943, followed by Florence in Italy in 1951. However, the Italian fashion capital was moved to Milan in 1958. After that Paris had its first fashion week in 1973 and lastly London in 1984.
“The new look” was created by Dior when the designer was one of the first ones to allow photographers at his shows. This changed the focus of fashion shows from clients to publicity.
During the 70’s ready-to-wear fashion took over the haute couture on the catwalk. During the next decade the British fashion brought a rebellious look to fashion shows, with Vivienne Westwood moving away from traditions.
The decade of the 90’s brought another revolution for fashion show – supermodels, like Cindy Crawford, which took the focus away from the designers. Moreover, it was not only the clothes that were important anymore, it was also about the models, the atmosphere, the setting and the location.
For this rather conservative industry technology has the biggest impact so far on its evolution. Starting from late 90’s with presenting collections online and embracing the Internet, the collaboration between fashion and tech continues until today.
The new generation fashion shows
Traditional fashion shows have been pretty much the same for a long time without bringing much innovation throughout the years. What really starts to change this though is the mixed-media industry. Accenture Nordics took part of
Helsinki Fashion Week 2019 and showed one of the many possibilities for collaboration between fashion and technology. Seats are limited for fashion shows and with people wanting to attend them from all over the world it means that a lot of interested people will be disappointed. Also, the costs of fashion weeks, for example, are enormous. When tech meets fashion, the result is a catwalk show that is accessible for a big audience from all around the world.
With solutions such as volumetric video fashion shows can reach broader groups and pop up whenever viewers want and wherever viewers are. As mentioned, fashion shows attract many people, but it is not possible for everyone to attend. Firstly, big portion of attendees have to travel from different parts of the country or even from abroad in order to be there for the show. Secondly, the number of seats and tickets are limited and so many people cannot attend. Through the Internet it is possible to stream live and technologies like volumetric video allow people to view the shows as if they are there.