What Inspiration Does Digital Fashion Show Bring To Paris Men'S Wear Week?

Is the fashion industry back to normal? Almost.

At least, that's what I got at the men's wear week in Paris, which ended this week. I say this in a completely positive way: in the face of the epidemic, people's investment in creativity is encouraging. In fact, everyone has a series ready to show off, which is a great achievement in itself. To tell you the truth, many men's clothing design studios have begun to develop their original ideas when the blockade comes. But turning these ideas into clothes is no small matter. As people say: need is the mother of invention.

However, these are not ordinary series. Designers are people, not machines without feelings. Anxiety, insecurity, fear... These feelings have affected everyone in the past difficult months. Now, in fact, they are. For this reason, as well as practical business considerations, most brands restate their core aesthetic language. This is not a season of unprecedented disruption. The harsh design of the environment did not make up for the explosion. Designers stick to their ideas and patterns, re launch a new version of the previous successful style, and add new elements here and there.

It worked. If the current crisis has taught us anything, it is that innovation for the sake of new is just a public relations gimmick; the desire for unnecessary change is a toxic marketing gimmick. Good ideas stand the test of time and are the most powerful source of sustainable development, although many brands are clamoring for environmental responsibility while launching more new, new and new products at the same time.

So, the most familiar variation is a little bit more. But the shape is different. In fact, this season has a sense of familiar charm, from the deconstruction of Yohji Yamamoto's deep purple decorative style to herm è s five-star luxury alienation; from the complex diversity and delicacy of y-project to Rick Owens's mixture of wide shoulder suits, tight knitwear, hard stripe and grunge robes; From Lanvin's sharp and affectionate Romanticism to the beautiful chaos of Mihara Yasuhiro; from the multicultural collision of sports and elegance by GmbH to the precision of Botter. At Kolor, Abe even copied the mood of his 2011 series and adjusted it to suit the current situation. On many virtual platforms, it's like seeing an old friend. You find that the friend has not changed and is still a good friend.

In terms of fashion, there is nothing new to notice. Kiko kostadinov is an exception that confirms the rule: the collection is crazier than ever and more glamorous in fashion design. But in other places, casual, non conformist men's wear has proved to be mobile, urban, impersonal, slightly tailored, just like in recent seasons, and well suited for street wear.

But this is a virtual fashion week, which is displayed on the website through video. Therefore, this is also an interesting experiment. Fashion and image, as creative media, can combine or possibly conflict to enlarge the content of fashion, transfer and expand it. Sometimes, it is almost a erotic perspective to focus on the theme of clothing, and sometimes almost completely erase the clothing and tell it with emotion or story. This form is democratic in a way: all designers, big and small, have to come and play the video game, and sometimes small productions are better than big ones.

Since Nick Knight launched show studio in 2000, we have witnessed the rise of fashion movies, and social media has helped to promote the development of fashion movies. However, unlike fashion photography, fashion movies are far from finding a rulebook or a clear form, which makes the exploration in this field very exciting. Everything goes from a set of business slides to a purely atmospheric illustration, and it's better to add it all together. However, evaluating animated images like Yohji Yamamoto and considering shots like Rick Owens are completely different. We can also enjoy a mottled psychedelic movement played by a fictional drummer by dries van noten. Here, the media really matters. However, as a critic, I find it sometimes difficult to adapt my criteria to what I see.

Should I evaluate video or clothing? These two objects are usually presented together, and sometimes they highlight fashion. An animated fashion show makes kidsuper's vision shine in the most acute way. At other times, they are shown on their own. In a different statement, GmbH shows a video of artist Lars Laumann: season of migration to the north.

There is no obvious fashion content in Louis Vuitton's "message in a bottle" performance, and these super eye-catching and interesting animations are actually one of Virgil abloh's greatest efforts so far for this French luxury giant: A truly young, inclusive re creation, and its technique of setting emotions, rather than designing groundbreaking works. It's all very fashionable and fascinating, and the rest of the series will be shown around the world. From Aldo Maria Camillo to Davi Paris, designers of all sizes have shown similar, compelling creations in the same band.

What really didn't work was the shows that didn't have an audience: too cold, frankly, too boring. However, we need to see how clothes move and walk. That's why the catwalk has consolidated its appeal for decades as a way to showcase new styles. But how to transform it into a dynamic and narrative video form?

"Tutes did a great job, working with director Gregoire Dyer to do one of the best visual experiments of the season. It's a fashion show, but it's not a fashion show: a real movie style, seamless long shots, following a group of characters walking through Paris's 20th district. Each character plays the leading role for a period of time until the camera moves smoothly to another character. This is an original film. Both Juun J and sulvam chose their respective cities - Seoul and Tokyo - for the background of the video, but somehow their style choices seem a bit predictable. At herm è s, the idea of filming backstage events is even more exciting. It's a series of creative highlights, but it's all about the chaos.

The main narrative style of this season is absolutely centered on the production process, and it's not hard to understand why: the presentation of the production process satisfies the curiosity of the audience and establishes a close relationship with them. In Dior, Kim Jones shows this style in two videos. The first part focuses on the Ghanaian painter amoako boafo, who lives in Vienna, and the second part is a series influenced by boafo. However, if executed perfectly, the rich and colorful colors and strong emotions in the artist's paintings will make the clothing series a little stylized.

At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson also focused on this process. He put the process in a file box and sent it directly to the door of each "participant.". "Display in the box" - the concept is definitely the highlight of this season's format: as non digital as possible, but as glamorous as possible. Of course, it's accompanied by 24-hour interviews, talks and online concerts, but the fact is that fashion is completely displayed in boxes, which is a pleasure. Boxed silhouettes, color cards, texture cards, even a graphic, plus the silhouette of team members, all the elements of excellent rendering are integrated into a whole series. It's like being in the middle of a show with the body still at home, creating a connection that we all really lack.