Surrealism-Issue 11

During the hundreds of shows we editors see over the course of four weeks, we can become a bit like bored children: Give us a spectacle! Some magic tricks! Loud music and flashing lights! If models were to walk back and forth across the runway in everyday clothes it might inspire a riot. A fashion show is just that: a show. It is a place where ideas are pushed, risks are taken, where the fantastical or the ideal or the outrageous is engaged. While it is a bit of a caricature, an exaggeration, it is not without purpose. At its most commercial, the goal is to create the kind of desire that moves less expensive products like handbags, perfumes or cosmetics.