A century of fashion for those who know nothing about fashion

Is it possible to condense more than 100 years of runway history into a single exhibition?
The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein has taken on the challenge with a major exhibition titled “Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show,” which retraces the most important “stages” of this phenomenon through the display of garments, objects, architectural models, and even invitations and stage pieces. The protagonists are, of course, the greats: Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Maison Martin Margiela, Prada, Yohji Yamamoto, and many others. Beyond showing how the design of the runway has evolved over more than a century, the exhibition aims to spark reflection on the social transformations that fashion represents.

The theme centers on the history of the catwalk and its relationship with design, architecture, and art — presented across four rooms within the museum designed by Frank O. Gehry. Yet, more than for fashion design experts or industry professionals, the exhibition seems directed at those who actually know very little about fashion.

The impression is that of walking through a conceptual map of the subject’s foundations — something to be explored further later on. Even the accompanying catalog takes the form of a small manual, organized like a dictionary from A to Z, containing “fashion’s key words” (though missing a few letters, such as J for Jacquemus). “We’ve always been interested in interdisciplinary approaches and in themes that broaden the very definition of design,”
says Mateo Kries, director of the Vitra Design Museum. Indeed, the effort to connect fashion to the museum’s broader concerns — and at the same time to build as complete a narrative as possible, at least thematically — is evident.

Curated by Jochen Eisenbrand and Katharina Krawczyk, together with Kirsty Hassard and Svetlana Panova (from the V&A Dundee in Scotland), the exhibition seeks to highlight the key aspects that make the fashion show a form of art, as the title itself suggests — with all its nuances, even at the cost of omitting some brands or unforgettable shows we might have expected to see.

The first section introduces the origins of the phenomenon. It begins with Charles Frederick Worth, considered the father of French haute couture, who started using the real body as a medium instead of mannequins, and continues with the unforgettable mirrored staircase of Gabrielle Chanel, built in her historic Paris atelier. In the early 20th century, fashion shows were intimate gatherings held by Parisian couturiers — fashion reserved for the very few, even fewer than today. Also featured is the famous Théâtre de la Mode of 1945, an itinerant exhibition that served as an act of aesthetic resilience after the war, foreshadowing the social role fashion would assume in the years to come.

During the 1960s and 1970s, runway shows left private salons and began to infiltrate the streets, clubs, and spaces of pop culture. Legendary is Azzedine Alaïa’s 1985 show at the Palladium in New York — the nightclub that marked the city’s clubbing history with a design by Arata Isozaki. These were also important years for Japanese designers: Kenzo turned runway shows into parties, and together with Kawakubo and Yamamoto, became part of the “Japanese revolution” that introduced to Paris an aesthetic far removed from Western beauty standards.

Italy, too, has its place in this second section, which spans the 1950s to the 1980s — with Missoni’s 1967 “runway” show on inflatables in Milan’s Solari pool. Scandalous at the time, because it revealed glimpses of the models’ nudity (as Rosita Missoni told Domus), it remains memorable — proof that fashion shows during this period had become true performances. This is the theme of the second room: the liberation of the body and the runway.

If the 1970s were about bringing fashion closer to art and pop culture, the 1990s are portrayed as a moment of euphoria and overexposure, when fashion itself became pop. These were the years of the “Trinity Models” — Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista (who famously said, “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day”) — but also the years of Maison Martin Margiela’s debut in 1988. At a time when all attention was on the flawless faces of top models, Margiela sent models down the runway with faces completely covered in makeup — unrecognizable. It was the era of the runway as a place of spectacle, but also of protest — preparing for the new millennium, when the fashion show would reveal its most radical side. Olivier Saillard’s Models Never Talk performance (2016), whose video is shown in the exhibition, is one of the most striking examples: the fashion show becomes a critical device, exposing its own mechanisms — and judging them.

Jochen Eisenbrand, one of the curators

Thus emerges fashion’s role of denunciation on the catwalk — as in Alessandro Michele’s 2018 Gucci show, where models in floral gowns walked past surgical tables, carrying wax replicas of their own heads. A reflection on the political role of the contemporary runway is unavoidable: “Every time major fashion houses take a political stance, they risk alienating clients or, worse, triggering a storm of criticism,” says curator Jochen Eisenbrand to Domus, offering an explanation for many brands’ silence on the urgent issues of our time. According to Eisenbrand, “hope lies with the younger generation, who can afford to take more risks — not only in what they create but also in what they say,” much like the youth of the 1970s once did.

In today’s hyperconnected world, where everything happens in real time, fashion continues to search for its physical space while drawing from its own history. The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated experimentation, leading to fully digital design weeks — from Milan to New York in 2021 — and to virtual, highly original fashion shows, such as the Balenciaga x The Simpsons collaboration (2022), featured in the exhibition’s fourth room. “Digitalization adds another layer to the fashion show, but it cannot replace it,” comments Eisenbrand — perhaps summing up a collective sentiment, especially as we witness one of the most popular trends of recent years: fashion shows staged within true architectural icons. On one wall of the fourth and final room are images from Chanel’s Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2017–2018 show inside Paris’s Grand Palais, recently renovated for the Olympic Games.

Still, this room also highlights what’s missing — many iconic 2000s shows, such as Jacquemus at Villa Malaparte, Dior at Pierre Cardin’s Palais Bulles (2015), Gucci at the Tate Modern, or Louis Vuitton at the Salk Institute designed by Louis Kahn. “We would have loved to show more,” says Eisenbrand, “but it would have been far too expensive.”

In exchange, the exhibition emphasizes the often-underestimated link connecting fashion, architecture, and design — featuring, for instance, Virgil Abloh’s Skyline Jacket for Louis Vuitton, inspired by New York skyscrapers, and the presence of OMA/AMO, Rem Koolhaas’s studio, whose long collaboration with Prada spans from spatial design (the Foundation, stores) to runway curation.

“I believe architecture and architects will play an increasingly important role in the runway,” concludes Eisenbrand, “because reusing existing buildings is a sustainable way to create a wonderful atmosphere without having to build something new.” And indeed, within Frank O. Gehry’s museum spaces, that vision comes to life — making this exhibition something truly unique.

Opening image: Supermodels Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington at the Versace Ready-to-Wear show, F/W 1991/92, Milan. © Shutterstock, Photo: Paul Massey