VOGUE:
INVENTING THE RUNWAY
WHAT? Vogue: Inventing the Runway
WHERE? Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, N1C 4DY
WHEN? Now until 26th April 2025
WHY GO? For tingling fashion vibes. Feel the thrill of a real live fashion show in this all immersive spectacle.
Is it a fashion show, theatrical experience or slice of social history? It’s all three, considering Vogue is the byword for fashion and has led the way in defining its relevance in society around the world.
Entering backstage, the scene is set with a make-up room, clothing rails, and model sheets, then the real ‘experience ‘ unfolds.
It’s a full 50 minutes production from start to finish though visitors can dip in wherever and whenever and get the general gist.
Establishing Vogue as the arbiter of fashion, it highlights archive footage from the early days of Charles Frederick Worth and Christian Dior when fashion shows were in private salons; and unfolds at a heady pace noting every era and the designers that made an impact.
Snippets from shows are projected sky high with soaring runway music to the dulcet tones of Cate Blanchett whose commentary constantly underlines the significance of fashion as a barometer of society.
The big global fashion houses like Chanel, Loewe and Vuitton are all well served with show stopping runway extracts, none more dramatic than the famous Fendi/Lagerfeld show staged on the Great Wall of China in 200, a milestone in fashion history.
Around 60 global fashion names feature, but the stitch that sews them all together is based less on their originality but more on how they have represented the zeitgeist of the moment.
IN THE KNOW. The esteemed Alexandra Shulman, British Vogue’s longest serving Editor, calls a new book The Biography of an Icon, “The first book to give Vogue its rightful place.” Written by Julie Summers, author of an earlier biography of Vogue’s wartime editor Audrey Withers, it’s the perfect gift for fashionistas.
Inventing the Runway. CHANEL Spring-Summer 2015 Couture Show. Credit, Justin Sutcliffe