What is the purpose of fashion shows with ridiculous clothes?

[CRSP]

As in the fashion shows you see on TV, with weird clothes. What is the purpose of these shows? Do people really buy these clothes and wear them somewhere, or are they just for publicity purposes?

[Glazer]

Publicity mostly. To show off coming trends and elements that will show up in stores. And to display a designers style for buyers looking for custom pieces.

Auto Shows do the same thing with cars that will never see a show room.

[Exy]

People don't really wear that shit at all -- however, design elements that eventually make their way into ready-to-wear clothes will often first show up on the catwalk. If a designer is playing around with a pattern, or a color, or something like that, they'll show it off in ridiculous excess at an event designed strictly for the purpose of showing off clothes. It doesn't matter that those items are probably one-of-a-kind, and quite likely not actually wearable (because they're likely held together with strategically placed tape and probably the seams are not sewn up completely. Those garments are not even intended to survive past the evening.) It also doesn't matter that the clothes look crazy to people who aren't designers or hardcore fashion enthusiasts. It's the same way a musician's record collection tends to have a lot of "difficult" or hard-to-understand stuff in it; designers get bored with the practical, wearable things and want to just kind of dick around.

In terms of economics, they're just another publicity tool. The attendees and the people who look at the photos in magazines may well include folks who want to buy the designer's actual clothing lines -- so this is thrilling entertainment to the people who really care about what's "in" this season. Publicity is everything for designers -- the ultra high end stuff is a loss leader anyway. Even the expensive but potentially affordable stuff you see in department stores is probably not making all that much profit. They make their real money selling perfume to regular people. And you gotta have the glamour and the mystique to go with it if you're going to sell an ounce of perfume for 50 bucks.

[Sarahfeena]

My short version of what Excalibur said in his first paragraph is that the crazy clothes are suppoesd to be conceptual...more like works of art than actual, wearable clothing, but with some relevance to what the ready-to-wear items will ultimately look like.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I've got this recollection of Alexander McQueen saying that there's the big show with the press coverage where there's the ridiculous clothes, then there's a show for buyers only that has the stuff that's supposed to sell. I got the impression that the first was to create the buzz for the second.

[Cluricaun]

It’s all about feel. If the designer is going to be introducing a new line that focuses on say…..linen and motorcycle style jackets you can’t just pop out a few models in the same stuff you’ll actually find on the rack at Macys, no, there must be vision and bombast and cleverness. Conceptual stuff. A lot of it doesn’t even have anything to do with the clothes that they actually make. It just gives people an excuse to dress like Karl Lagerfeld and torture anorexics for an afternoon.

Think of them as Mardi Gras parades for the absurd world of fashion and they make more sense.

[featherlou]

You boys sure seem to know a lot about high fashion. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Glazer]

You learn alot dating models.

[Cluricaun]

You boys sure seem to know a lot about high fashion. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Well I asked myself this same question many years ago. I was curious where all the people were who actually dressed like that as I hadn’t encountered any of them and I’d been around the block a few times. Now maybe there is a town in Kansas somewhere that everyone wears giant elaborate hats and dresses with their tits hanging out while wearing angel wings, but I’ve never been there. Yet.

[Baldwin]

I've got this recollection of Alexander McQueen saying that there's the big show with the press coverage where there's the ridiculous clothes, then there's a show for buyers only that has the stuff that's supposed to sell. I got the impression that the first was to create the buzz for the second.

That makes sense, I suppose. Does the show for buyers feature models that are shaped like normal humans?

[Cluricaun]

From what I understand no, they're more along the lines of any other industry trade show. Samples of the actual clothing are made available to buyers and other industry types and they decide if they'll buy it or not. This is the source of lots of the high end type stuff that ends up in TJ Maxx and the like. Especially for women's shoes.

[Nawth Chucka]

...maybe there is a town in Kansas somewhere that everyone wears giant elaborate hats and dresses with their tits hanging out while wearing angel wings, but I’ve never been there. Yet.

If you haven't booked your honeymoon already...

[featherlou]

Oh, I forgot to add a serious response - it seems like part of the purpose is to make your average woman hate herself even more. Why that would increase clothes sales, I don't actually know.

[phouka]

Because once they can get women to hate themselves, then they can offer a "solution" to those parts of themselves women hate. Profits for everyone!

[MsRobyn]

From what I understand no, they're more along the lines of any other industry trade show. Samples of the actual clothing are made available to buyers and other industry types and they decide if they'll buy it or not. This is the source of lots of the high end type stuff that ends up in TJ Maxx and the like. Especially for women's shoes.

Which explains why stuff from TJ Maxx and the like don't last very long. I don't think samples are made to last.