Photo: Getty Images1/8Isaac Mizrahi, Fall 1994In the mid-1990s, when most shows were at the Bryant Park tents, Mizrahi went off-site to offer a spectacular presentation at the Manhattan Center. Viewers were able to witness the models dressing from behind a scrim, a thrilling theatrical gesture that tore down the fourth wall between the catwalk and the audience.
Photo: Marcelo Krasilcic/ Trunk Archive2/8Susan Cianciolo Run collectsions, mid-1990sThese shows two decades ago blurred the line between art and fashion. Sometimes the audience just sat on the ground and the hipster models—proudly clad in garments that the fashion industry sometimes snobbishly refers to as “loving hands at home”—wove between us on the floor.
Photo: Indigital.tv3/8Comme des Garçons, Fall 2012This was among the last of Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons collectsions that showed real clothes, not the stuffed-fabric fantasias she has lately presented. These fashions, meant to echo the two-dimensional quality of paper doll outfits, struck a deep nerve in the audience for their avant-garde conception, their extraordinary audacity, and their crazy beauty.
Photo: Indigital.tv4/8Chanel, Fall 2014Who but Chanel would build an entire supermarket in the hallowed Grand Palais? Sure, there had been extravaganzas mounted by Karl Lagerfeld in the past—he even schlepped an iceberg down from Sweden for the Fall 2010 show—but who wants a measly ice floe when you could stare at aisles full of Chanel bathmats, Chanel soup cans, Chanel wine bottles? And on top of that, you got to see Cara Delevingne and Rihanna pushing shopping carts.
Photo: Indigital.tv5/8Molly Goddard, Spring 2016The up-and-coming British designer Molly Goddard, a finalist this year for the LVMH Prize, undercut the sweetness of her spectacular tutu dresses by setting her show in a replica of a sandwich factory. Because, even if a girl had to leave school at 15 and take the only job available in her poky town, who says she can’t dream of being a tulle-clad fairy princess?
Photo: Indigital.tv6/8Meadham Kirchhoff, Spring 2012The legendary duo Ben Kirchhoff and Ed Meadham, who, unfortunately, had their last show in London in 2014, were known for a transgressive view of the tropes of “femininity.” At this show, they offered little girls of 6 or 7, awkwardly executing ballet steps, before the clothes—baby doll dresses and sequined hot pants, among other outré suggestions—took center stage, offering a poignant commentary on young women’s talents and expectations.
Photo: Courtesy of Isaiah Trotman / @it.photography47/8Gypsy Sport, Spring 2015The lines between audience and participants, models and mere hangers-on, were hopelessly, delightfully blurred at this Gypsy Sport show, held on a sunny afternoon in Washington Square Park. The audience sat on benches or around the fountain, the models dressed in full view of passersby on the other side of the arch, but when they finally sashayed down the imaginary catwalk, the sure hand of designer Rio Uribe was unmistakable. Indeed, he would go on to win a 2015 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize.
Photo: Getty Images8/8Philip Treacy, Spring 2013Held in London’s opulent Royal Courts of Justice, this show, conceived as an homage to Michael Jackson, raised the definition of headgear to whole new insane levels. Here were chapeaux as sculpture: light-up merry-go-round hats; hats made of miniature Brillo boxes; hats that mimicked boats afloat. And who better to open the festivities than Lady Gaga herself?
