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The BoF Podcast: The Fate of the Physical Runway Show

BoF Editor-at-Large Tim Blanks, The Washington Post’s fashion critic Robin Givhan and GQ’s Rachel Tashjian explore the past, present and the future of the event that makes the industry go round — the fashion show.
(Clockwise L-R) Tim Blanks, Robin Givhan, Rachel Tashjian, Lauren Sherman | Source: Courtesy
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LONDON, United Kingdom — Do fashion shows still matter? In the latest episode of The BoF Podcast, BoF Editor-at-Large Tim Blanks, The Washington Post's fashion critic Robin Givhan and GQ Magazine writer Rachel Tashjian join BoF Executive Editor Lauren Sherman in a virtual panel discussion on how the pandemic tested designers' ability to captivate buyers, media and consumers through creativity and the use of digital tool. What happens next?

  • For Blanks, in order to look forward, you must look back. Fashion shows have always "[meant] almost everything in fashion to an enormous degree… They challenge, they provoke, they're disturbing, they're overwhelming," he said. However, over the years, people have looked at the shows of the past as "a world that's gone in a way… it has that kind of poignant tug."
  • As industry commentators, Blanks, Givhan and Tashjian have taken note of how designers pivoted their strategies following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and what set them apart. For Givhan, JW Anderson's "show in a box" tapped into "the desire for something tactile, the desire for something that felt personal… that you could hold, that wasn't a digital... distant thing." Although livestreams have a way of broadening a brand's reach, as a critic, Givhan finds being "forced to look in one particular direction" hinders the experience. "Sometimes I find the most interesting element to be something that's over in a corner, but that's not the main thing that's walking down the runway towards me," she said.
  • In the future, Givhan hopes designers will use technology to "tell a story about their clothing, to weave a narrative in some way… to evoke emotion," instead of carbon-copying a traditional runway in a digital way. "It [just] feels… like something that… doesn't really quite fit," she said. For Blanks, what has come out of this period of uncertainty — and the modes of communication adopted — shouldn't be forgotten. "I hope that there will be this immediate contact, this sort of intimacy," he said. "I find that more interesting than maybe the way that we used to deal with things. I don't want a press release, I want to talk to people."
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A Year Without Fashion ShowsOpens in new window ]

Will Covid-19 Change Fashion Shows Forever?Opens in new window ]

Who Are Fashion Shows For?Opens in new window ]

Watch and listen to more #BoFLIVE conversations here. To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com.

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