Fashion shows get more complicated season after season: so far, we have seen arty props, visual installations, ballet dancers, singers, musicians and orchestras.
To be honest, even the best choreographed moments have started to become a bit too distracting to the point that, after sitting through a show, you can rarely remember the garments, but you definitely remember the music, visual installations or dance routine, as if you went to see a vaudeville act rather than a catwalk show.
The time has definitely come to strip things down a bit and reshift the attention on the actual clothes and the attitude.
A good inspiration to do this is maybe taking a trip back to 1973 when, to raise funds for the restoration of the Palace of Versailles, fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, organised a special show in which French and American designers presented their collections.
It took quite a few months and the support of influential socialites and celebrities to organise this "Grand Divertissement" in Versailles that featured on one side Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Ungaro, and on the other Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein and Stephen Burrows.
Versailles 73 - a documentary released last year and directed by Deborah Riley Draper - tells the story of this event through archive material and interviews with the models, publicists and fashion assistants involved.
The documentary highlights the differences between the two presentations: when the curtain rose on the grand event, the French couturiers presented to the audience of royals and celebrities (including Princess Grace of Monaco and Andy Warhol among the others...) a proper show with elaborate props (Dior had a Cinderella-like pumpkin carriage; Cardin a space rocket...) and even famous performers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Zizi Jeanmaire, Capucine, Josephine Baker and the girls from the Crazy Horse.
The Americans opened their segment instead with Liza Minnelli singing "Bonjour, Paris!", but then the attention quickly re-focused on a dynamic presentation featuring Anne Klein's sportswear and Stephen Burrows's bright coloured jersey dresses followed by Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Halston.
Models Pat Cleveland, Marisa Berenson, Alva Chinn, Bethann Hardison, China Machado, Barbara Jackson, Barbara Summers, Billie Blair, Charlene Dash and Norma Jean Darden moved quickly and swiftly on the stage with no tacky cardboard props distracting the audience.
Stephen Burrows' colourful designs donned by beautiful African-American models were particularly appreciated and the rhythms of the show, being shorter ad more frenetic (the French section lasted 2 hours and a half, the American section only 35 minutes...) were more appreciated by the members of the audience who threw in the air their catalogues in celebration.
It all ended with a delirious applause that closed the "battle of Versailles" - as many dubbed the event - with one winner, the American contingent (even Yves Saint Laurent admitted it...).
With their presentation the American designers marked a turning point in the history of fashion: they indeed showcased a different way of wearing and displaying clothes, proving that ready-to-wear could be as important as couture and they also proved that the fashion industry had been up until then quite racist. After that event, African-American models arrived on the runways and appeared on the covers of fashion magazines.
Maybe we have forgotten those same key points proved by "the battle of Versailles" - functional clothes, less pretentious presentations and energetic shows. Hopefully, we will rediscover these concepts soon, also thanks to Robin Givhan: the fashion critic and journalist has been researching the event for a while now for a book that should be published soon by Penguin Press.
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