Fashion show spectacles are back — and your feed is the new front row

Today's fashion shows are not for the faint of heart. From costuming gimmicks to hazardous stunts, there's been no shortage of surprises on recent runways. Just look at fashion month. 

All through September, social media was inundated with striking sartorial presentations, each more unexpected than the last. Italian label Avavav had models purposely tripping and falling on the runway. Sunnei and Gucci both startled audiences by enlisting twins to debut their collections. To close out the month, Coperni broke the internet after spray painting a dress onto Bella Hadid. Not to mention the copious celebrity cameos. Paris Hilton, Lil Nas X, Cher and many more surprised fans by gracing the catwalk. Kim Kardashian even curated her own collection for Dolce & Gabbana. Of course, each of these moments sparked its own online frenzy. And chances are, at least one of them landed on your radar — whether you wanted it to or not.

After two years of pared-down events and clunky virtual presentations, designers are bringing back in-person shows by fusing fashion with theatricality. Harper's Bazaar proclaimed that Paris' catwalks reinvented the runway spectacle. Time suggested that designers were "making up for lost time" with their startling presentations. Vogue went as far as to say that many brands had "a season of spectacle," full stop. Clearly, the quest for clickbait is palpable. But spectacles in fashion are nothing new. 

Designers have been using theatricality in their shows since the early 1900s, explains Rebecca Halliday, an assistant teaching professor at the University of Victoria and author of The Fashion Show Goes Live: Exclusive and Mediatized Performance. By the 1970s, luxury runways became opulent, elaborate productions, the author says. But it was the supermodel era of the 1990s when this over-the-top showmanship hit its peak. Famed designers like Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld walked the line between fashion show and performance art with grandiose sets and larger-than-life experiences that celebrated excess. "These were fashion spectacles that were meant to be perceived live," Halliday said. "They were meant to be seen by an audience in the performance space." But today, like many aspects of our lives, spectacles are moments made with social media in mind. 

With the late-2000s recession, increased awareness of waste in the fashion industry and COVID-19 ushering in an era of economic insecurity, the high-production value demonstrations of the 20th century have fallen out of favour, Halliday says. After all, internet-breaking moments can be created with much less. More and more, today's brands are astonishing audiences with antics that can be easily packaged as shareable clips, as opposed to exclusive, had-to-be-there affairs. 

Take Coperni's stunt. The presentation instantly garnered comparisons to Alexander McQueen's Spring 1999 runway show. Over two decades ago, model Shalom Harlow stood on a rotating platform while two robots chaotically spray-painted her pristine white dress. In the dystopian scene, she was slowly spun about, waving her arms in an attemp to shield herself from the vandalization. In comparison, Hadid's big moment was pretty pared-down. Sure, the science of synthetic spray fabric is complex, but the performance itself was uncomplicated, Halliday says. "All you need is two men, one or two cans and a model." And unlike McQueen's show, this execution was tailored to fit our screens.

The moment seized the social media cycle, just as it was intended to. "I didn't need to go watch that show to know that had happened," Halliday said. "I just turned on Instagram and suddenly it was there." 

Spectacular acts aren't necessarily happening more, Halliday says, but thanks to the internet, the frequency at which we consume them has sky-rocketed. "It's this sheer bombardment of different images, moments, reels, clips and all of these different smaller ways that we access fashion on an unmediated scale," she explained. In that sense, the contemporary spectacle is synonymous with social media.

That's not to say modern catwalks deprioritize the in-person experience. This season reaffirmed that, for some brands, otherworldly set designs are still the expectation. Balenciaga staged its show in a mud pit. Balmain hosted a 3,000-person music festival. Thom Browne presented his own retelling of Cinderella, complete with meticulously crafted props and lavish opera coats. But there's a notable difference between these happenings and the shocking runways of the '90s. "The spectacle is intended to be seen outside of the live performance space now," Halliday said.

The past two years forced brands to craft their presentations for virtual audiences, making social media a vital part of the fashion show rollout. And while this shift has increased accessibility to high-fashion spaces, it has also made it harder for designers to cut through the digital clutter and truly stand out. 

The industry is rethinking the nature of live performance in a post-COVID era, Halliday said. As a result, fashion spectacles largely aren't mimicking the exorbitant set designs of yore. Instead, they're focusing on the people in their shows — be it with celebrity stunt casting or shocking performances. "It's the models who are the ones creating, or at least enacting, these moments," Halliday explained. And rather than celebrating extravagance, many recent viral moments had self-critiquing messages. Coperni made a commentary on the disposable nature of clothing, Avavav's tripping models satirized flashy displays of wealth and superficiality, while Sunnei subverted the prestige of seating charts by hiding models in media pits and back rows.  

Over the past few decades, the concept of the catwalk has come a long way. What were once more elaborate and exclusive affairs are now defined by the virality of their spectacle. As for the future, Halliday predicts that runway shows will continue to find new ways to enthrall in short-form formats. Even though the nature of the spectacle is ever-evolving, surprises will never go out of style.