Riley Brennan
Co-Editor In Chief
At the beginning of every September, for most people the school year begins, and for New York City, Fashion Week runs rampant. The season of shows came in a blur of designers, models, and show stealing street style looks.
While the motivation for this September’s fashion week was the designer’s display of their Spring/Summer 2018 collections, the people who attend the shows often stole the spotlight. It’s no secret that those lucky enough to frequent the shows throughout the week, dress to impress. Often times the looks the audience shows up in gain more attention than the actual work on display. Vogue magazine’s website even has an entire tab, featured on their homepage, dedicated to street style. In fact, there’s an article with a total of 223 photos, solely made up of “The Best Street Style from New York Fashion Week Spring’ 18.” Among the photos were common themes, warm toned colors, loose fitting jeans and trousers, flare pants, skinny stripes, plaid, pencil skirts, ruffled blouses, denim (x5), draped dresses and jackets, and a variety of fun patterns.
Photographers line the street outside of show venues to snap photos of the attendees. This is one of the ways press is able to interact with fashion week, as not everyone will be invited to attend the shows. However, this whole concept of focusing on what the guests are wearing rather than what the models are wearing is troublesome. The concept of caring about what attendees wear to a fashion show is expected, but the line between caring and overshadowing is very blurry.
An increasing interest in what the celebrities and bloggers are wearing to the shows seems to stem from social media, and the theory that anyone can be a celebrity in today’s pop culture. None of this is inherently bad, but with more and more focus going to the people at the fashion show, rather than the actual work on display, the fashion industry has the potential to evolve into one that is purely driven by social media stunts, instead of the artistic vision and talent. As always, it’s the masses that determine the future.
