The Spectacle of Art vs the Art of Spectacle

Words Ayokunnumi Macaulay

In a time where virality rules the air waves, it seems that many designers are shifting their focus from creating revolutionary fashion to social media sensation. So now, we are left with no choice but to dissect the difference between The Spectacle of Art and The Art of Spectacle. Let us begin.

Spectacle. A visually striking performance or display.

At face value, I don’t necessarily have an issue with this idea of spectacle but as the performative nature of fashion and runway is increasing, it’s becoming ever more prominent and ever more lacklustre.

I say this because, after all the fanfare, the designs that are revealed are often rather mediocre and seem to be showing little thought in design and craftsmanship. Let’s take Coperni for example, a favourite of mine, Vaillant and Meyer do generally create gorgeous, well-designed collections, not to talk about the iconic Swipe bag. However, I find that when they venture into the fanfare (spectacle) side of fashion, the designs just seem to fall flatter than the debacle that precedes it.

To be specific, the most famous white spray-on dress as assembled on Bella Hadid. Yes, it was ground-breaking and revolutionary in that it was s dress that was spray-painted on… but that’s literally about it. In the moments after, when the stars and awe have left your eyes, your left looking at a white off shoulder midi dress. No fine tailoring, amazing craftmanship or innovative design elements or features, nothing note-worthy. And again, they demonstrated the same thing with their AW23 show where a robot dog ripped a cloak off model, Rianne van Rompaey, but only to reveal a simple ballerina style dress. Not ugly or terrible but just not note-worthy.

Coperni is just one of the brands that have taken to social media sensationalism, other designers such as Heliot Emil, Collina Strada, Sunnei with its crowd surfing models, have also sought to create viral moments in their runway shows. However, with Heliot Emil sending a model engulfed in flamed down their runway, I wasn’t left feeling let down as with other brands. The model set the catwalk on fire donning an all-black ensemble consisting of layers of distressed, torn hoodies and zip detailed baggy pants. In this display, we don’t lose out on the element of design, and I think this is what shows a clear distinction between the clothes being the spectacle rather than the display being the spectacle. In this case, the spectacle is an addition to an already exciting and cohesive presentation rather than it being the main storyline. 

The spectacle doesn’t begin and end with the fashion houses as we see musicians, such as the Estonian Tommy Cash, attending shows looking like they just rolled out of bed. Literally. His outfit included bedroom slippers, a duvet with matching pillows, dishevelled hair and even the application of a face mask mid-runway show. Although this was a fun and camp demonstration, I do still feel like it takes away from the purpose of the fashion shows.

Call me a purist but I love the feeling of awe and delight that you get when you see a piece of clothing with an amazing silhouette or perfect tailoring or a reimagined design. That is the feeling I look for when watching a show, I want to feel the joy and inspiration bubble up from the depths of my fashion soul and fill my every being. So, watching the spectacles go on can be novel and surprising in the moment but if I’m not left with that true feeling of excitement about the clothes, then it’s a major miss for me.

So, you can see my issue isn’t necessarily the social media propaganda itself but it’s more so what is it alluding to or revealing, that should be as astonishing and flamboyant as the spectacles. This is where I say that designers should veer more towards, The Spectacle of Art, meaning how visually striking the actual creations are, as opposed to The Art of Spectacle, how big of a display that can be created surrounding the actual art. 

I bid you adieu with the question, does performative art really have a space in true fashion?