Paris Digital Fashion Week

One of the first of many digital fashion weeks has come to a close this week. Paris’ digital Fashion Week for Spring / Summer 2021 Menswear has been successful in getting fellow fashion-lovers excited about the newest collections. Many french designers debuted collections in unique digital formats, while others chose to stick to traditional-runway shows. Whichever format they chose, the buzz surrounding each designer was met with positive feedback.

Rick Owens, Loewe, Hermes, and Balmain were just some of the big names who appeared in the official Paris Fashion Week digital format. Although they all created videos, the content was unique to each designer’s vision for the collection.

For Hermes, their video consisted of behind-the-scenes footage of the production process. In a documentary-style film directed by Cyril Teste, models were seen being fitted by tailors and practicing their runway walks. The setting for the film, Hermes’ headquarters, Pantin, the centre of its world-renowned leather production, made a clean backdrop to film the clothes in action.

Rick Owens slot featured a CCTV-style film of Tyrone Dylan Susman modeling his collection, which was titled “Phlegethon” after Dante’s Inferno. The collection itself consisted of signature Owens style, with tailed coats, drop-crotch trousers, and some interesting looking shoes. Watching the video makes it difficult to compare seeing the clothes on models strutting down the runway. Although the fly-on-the-wall style viewing is creative, it does not compare to seeing the clothes in action.

Dior, although not on the official schedule, combined interviews with camera footage of the collection and the art that inspired them. It was an interesting way to learn about how the collection came to be, especially hearing from the Ghanian artist Amoako Boafo. His well-known portraits of Black figures played a prominent role in the video, as well as the entire collection itself.

Although the designers who partook in Paris fashion week used their creativity to promote their latest collections, no video could ever replace the experience of a live fashion show.


By: Staci Soslowitz