Dear Shaded Viewers,
Today, I’d like to explore, through a touch of humour and a generous splash of sass, some thoughts on the involvement (or rather, the lack of involvement) of fashion students in fashion shows.
Let’s begin:
“Did you see how beautiful the finishing on look five was?” said no food influencer ever.
Musicians can go to concerts, artists can go to art openings, actors can go to movie theatres on release dates, but fashion students can’t even conceive of attending a show? We have to wait over six months to see the pieces in a shop (which, at this point, are not even the show pieces). How are we supposed to learn?
Fashion often thrives on this feeling of exclusivity, on having to “make it” in order to belong, but why impose that exclusivity on young adults who are investing their time and money in studying the industry for over three years (most of the time, much more)?
Fashion Week has become one of the biggest social events on the calendar, drawing people from every industry — sports, cooking, acting, music, and beyond. And while I’m thrilled that the latest Netflix actress (who likely doesn’t know what a french seam is and thinks the latest collection of Chanel is “so chic”) showed up to my dream show, I firmly believe brands have a responsibility to support young talent — especially current fashion design students.
I get it — brands need exposure. And sadly, my 1,500 followers aren’t exactly moving the needle. But if you’re showing at the Grand Palais, don’t tell me you can’t make room for a few aspiring designers. Who knows? One day, they might just be working for you. Take sports, for instance — you very often see young talents meeting professionals and even attending the top competitions. At the end of the day, you need to look in order to learn.
To be fair, some shows have generously invited students. I won’t name names, but let’s just say they did it in order to fill up space. Honestly, that’s also valid — and we still appreciate it. But why make your future workers feel like they can’t even imagine attending a show by one of their favorite brands?
Fashion is one of the few creative industries that offers biannual major events, with multiple presentations, incredible amounts of money involved, and venues hosted in enormous facilities — they have the infrastructure and the resources to invest the tiniest amount in their future creators. We’re not asking for front row — a small corner to stand in will do the job.
Interestingly, it’s often small brands that support younger designers the most. Maybe because they’re still trying to get in, too—or maybe because they were dreamers like us not so long ago. And yes, they actually do need all the exposure they can get, so I wouldn’t blame them if they gave my seat to a “Get Ready With Me” influencer with half a million followers.
However… the Avenue Montaigne residents? How can you have so much and give so little?
There was a time when students would queue up at the entrance of the show and manage to get in, but the huge amount of celebrities attending shows makes this near impossible nowadays… security and paparazzi take too much space for us to even be seen. I think the industry doesn’t realize that all this exposure is worthless if your future is extremely unmotivated about joining it — we just want to feel like we can become part of it.
At the end of the day, we kind of already are…
Best,
Belén, A fashion student that has never attended a show 🙂
