death of the fashion show

It was announced that Yohji Yamamoto would cancel his show in the coming ss10 Paris mens fashion week “due to the worldwide economic situation.” , opting instead for a showrom viewing by appointment. While this is not uncommon, especially for smaller houses, it got me thinking about the form of the fashion show. It is in my opinion one a really ineffective of showing clothes. Sure, you can see movement, you get to see the styling, you feel the mood of the collection, but the brevity of a fashion show and the physical distance between the audience and the models makes it hard to actually look at the clothes, perhaps even less so for too-cool-for-you fashion editors in their giant shades. A fashion show is pure spectacle and theatrics, as most f the business are done in the showrooms where actual pieces may be observed up close. However, the show will go on

Fashion shows especially for the bigger houses are million dollar affairs, sometimes with more than a thousand attendees. Yohji as a shrewd businessman might be using the economic situation as an opportunity (or excuse) to rejig his own presentation model. Recalling Helmut Lang's epic decision in 1998 to move his show 6 weeks before schedule in New York (eventually causing the whole New York fashion week to make the move too and showing ahead of Milan and Paris), we shall see what this move by Yohji will have on the larger fashion system.