Put on a Show
- nutyejen
- Nov 17, 2016
- 3 min read
The first fashion show I was involved with was while I was in my first year at Olds College. Us first years, not having much experience with the actual making of amazing and spectacular garments, were still in the toile (rough garment/trial stage) and pattern stages of our education. I think there were a couple pieces made into fashion fabric, like a boring pair of pants and a simple skirt, nothing really worth while showing off. We expected to watch the second years show off their clothing that they had made and get ideas for ourselves next year on how to do things bigger and better. But the art teacher us first years had, had a very different plan. He was quirky, humorous and just bat shit crazy in my opinion (One of my fondest memories of his class was one where he was describing an acid trip and was reenacting it completely and totally, not censoring at all!...until he realised we hadn't a clue what he was talking about and were laughing so hard that we couldn't breath.)...especially when he showed us this video and said that this was our inspiration for the first years part of the fashion show...
When you have an insane (but the best ever!) art teacher, you become very afraid when the inspiration includes naked people being painted. That's almost what happened besides the naked part, though our toiles before paint, were pretty see through. He stood us up against a projector and had us draw all over each other which got pretty awkward being so up close and personal.
As you can see, he made us turn out toiles into a painted scene...to be honest, even with the awkwardness, it was the most fun I have ever had! The other scenes that were done was a street art style fish back ground and the other one was a city sky line. It was epic!
One a side note and a little FYI, painting muslin shrinks it...a lot!! We literally jumped into our dresses and pulled them on like the tightest armour you could imagine. They stood perfectly straight as if we were still wearing them and you can not at all sit down while wearing them. But it was all in fun and that's what I believe fashion should be.
Fun and a showing of passion.
I don't have images of the second fashion show I was in. We had professional models, hairstylists, makeup artists, but it was so stiff (and not fabric wise stiff like in my first show). There was not a smile, not a giggle, just freaking out and frantic gestures.
Simply put,it wasn't fun. At all.
But that's how I thought fashion shows that weren't just kids having fun were supposed to be. Our first one was just a have fun, do your own thing, unprofessional, entertainment centred show. It wasn't anything like the haute couture (high fashion) shows. Yes we had makeup artists, and hairdressers and even professional models for the second years, but it wasn't like the shows you watch from France. When you watch them, they seem stiff and the models are like mannequins rather than real people. I thought the idea that fashion shows can be fun according to the first one I did, was completely wrong and unprofessional. Fashion = not fun = professional.
I started researching designers to find out what was out there and came across Jean Paul Gaultier and one of his fashion shows that I instantly fell in love.
No plastic models! Real people! Real expressions! Real fun! Did my stereotypes come crashing down in the most pleasant way. Even when he is serious with his fashion shows, I'm meaning in the way they are presented, there is still fun.
His 2016/2017 fall and winter collection, the models are obviously allowed to do little silly things here and there. It's not much, but it definitely has silliness in it.
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