Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show

Vitra Design Museum

An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum and V&A Dundee

Partner: Louis Vuitton
Media Partner: arte

Exhibition programme

They last barely fifteen minutes, yet their images are seen around the world: fashion shows are media spectacles, social rituals, and style-defining statements. With the exhibition »Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show«, the Vitra Design Museum is dedicating a major show to the phenomenon of fashion shows starting on October 18. The exhibition explores the history and cultural significance of the fashion show from its early forms around 1900 to the present day and brings together fashion houses such as Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Maison Martin Margiela, Prada, Viktor & Rolf, Louis Vuitton, Yohji Yamamoto, and many others. Original collection pieces, film and photographic material, stage objects, and show invitations animate over 100 years of fashion history on the catwalk.

The exhibition focuses on the fashion show as a Gesamtkunstwerk. What began as an intimate presentation in Parisian salons has evolved into a global event where architecture, scenography, choreography, lighting, sound, and props merge into a multi-layered narrative space. The exhibition is arranged in four rooms designed to reflect the style of their respective eras, tracing the central stages of the fashion show, from the elite couture salon to experimental prêt-à-porter formats, from the classic catwalk to contemporary digital performances. It becomes clear that fashion shows always reflect body ideals and social change, prompting questions about the motives behind them. What myths, values, and dreams are being negotiated? What stories are being told and what power structures are depicted? What does a fashion show reveal about the collection on display and about the era in which it was created?

The beginnings of the fashion show (Room 1) date back to the early 20th century, when fashion was presented to a select clientele, mostly in the salons of the couturiers. Early film documents and ephemera introduce the protagonists of this era, such as Charles Frederick Worth, who was one of the first to present fashion on real women rather than mannequins. Lucile and Paul Poiret linked fashion presentation with storytelling, while Gabrielle Chanel had her mannequins descend dramatically down a mirrored staircase into the salon. Historical photographs document early fashion shows in US department stores, at horse races, and on ocean liners, which inspired the cruise collections still shown today. One highlight of this era is the Théâtre de la Mode, a travelling exhibition created in 1945 in response to the war-induced crisis in French fashion. Over 40 Parisian couturiers presented miniature collections on elaborate wire dolls within detailed stage sets. Several original mannequins from the Balenciaga archive recreate this legendary post-war revival, complemented by film footage by photographer Tom Kublin of early Balenciaga shows in the 1960s.

The second part of the exhibition traces the period when fashion shows moved out of salons and into the city with the rise of prêt-à-porter fashion, connecting with subcultures. In 1958, Chloé invited guests to the famous artists’ haunt Café de Flore. Designers such as Courrèges and Paco Rabanne experimented with space and movement, while Kenzo transformed his shows into parties. Legendary is the Battle of Versailles, a fashion duel between French and American designers in 1973, where the Americans challenged the previously dominant French haute couture, marking the international breakthrough of US fashion. Black models such as Pat Cleveland reshaped the image of the catwalk during this period, and fashion shows became performances signalling social change. Invitations to fashion shows also gained importance, becoming an integral part of the overall concept.

With the rise of supermodels in the 1990s, fashion shows gained global visibility. A Versace show (Fall/Winter 1991), in which Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington sang George Michael’s hit Freedom together, became emblematic of this era. Film clips reveal the new body ideal these models shaped: powerful, self-confident, and glamorous. Critical examinations of commercialisation and the pressure to succeed also appear: William Klein’s film “Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?” (1966) satirises the success and conflicts of an American model, while the performance “Models Never Talk” gives models a voice to discuss their walk and poses.

The third section of the exhibition begins around the turn of the millennium, when fashion shows became major media events with increasing budgets and the influence of corporations such as LVMH and Kering. Karl Lagerfeld set new standards with Chanel, creating spectacular venues in the Grand Palais in Paris, from a meticulously staged supermarket to a rocket launch and a demonstration march on a replica boulevard. Original props and architectural models from the supermarket show (Fall-Winter 2014/15 Ready-to-Wear) and the rocket show (Fall-Winter 2017/18 Ready-to-Wear) illustrate the opulence of these stagings.

At the same time, other designers embraced radical deconstruction: in his legendary show No. 13 (Spring/Summer 1999), Alexander McQueen had two industrial robots spray-paint a dress live on stage, while Viktor & Rolf dressed a model in nine layers, one by one, in their minimalist Russian Doll fashion show (Fall 1999). Martin Margiela moved presentations to an empty hospital, a parking deck, or a vacant lot. His shows are performances that leave traces: an original model from the Spring/Summer 2006 show with colour traces from a necklace made of ice cubes that melted during the show will be on display in the exhibition, as will a fabric carpet that captured the models’ coloured shoe prints (Spring/Summer 1989).

The fourth room is devoted to the recent past. Even before 2020, fashion shows were increasingly staged with attention to their digital impact, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rise of hybrid and purely digital formats. In the short film The Dior Myth Dior presented a miniature collection in a dollhouse (Fall/Winter 2020), Loewe sent out a Show in a Box (Spring/Summer 2021), and Balenciaga collaborated with Matt Groening on an episode of The Simpsons (Spring/Summer 2022), where the characters walked in a fashion show. Fashion houses and fashion designers increasingly involve artists and choreographers in their shows: Issey Miyake presented One Minute Sculptures by Erwin Wurm (Spring/Summer 2025), and Sharon Eyal created a dance performance (Spring/Summer 2019) for a Dior show – the exhibition features a Dior catsuit designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri for a dancer.

Recent shows often use the human body as a stage for political and social negotiation. Rick Owens had women carry other women (Spring/Summer 2016), and Alessandro Michele at Gucci (Fall/Winter 2018) referenced Donna Haraway’s feminist Cyborg Manifesto in a futuristic operating room. In Balenciaga’s Parliament Show (Spring/Summer 2020) – the exhibition presents an architectural model and a spectacular gown – make-up artists applied facial prosthetics to some models, questioning beauty ideals in times of social media. The close relationship between the medium of the fashion show and architecture is illustrated in the exhibition, among others, through the collaboration between Rem Koolhaas’ Studio OMA and Prada, which has lasted for over 25 years. Also on display is a skyline jacket created by Virgil Abloh based on iconic skyscrapers. It was first shown in a setting inspired by Mies van der Rohe during the Louis Vuitton menswear presentation for Autumn/Winter 2021/22.

As a commentary on the industry’s appetite for material, the fourth room’s scenography uses elements from past fashion shows, provided by company Spazio META in Milan. The rapid return to elaborate live shows after the pandemic demonstrates the enduring importance of live staging, even in the digital age. While images now travel worldwide in real time, fashion shows retain their cultural significance primarily through the real experience, with all its myths, rituals, and codes, as major artistic events and mirrors of society.

Accompanying the exhibition is a richly illustrated catalogue designed as an A–Z of the fashion show, featuring contributions from model Małgosia Bela, sound supervisor Michel Gaubert, buyer Andreas Murkudis, and experts including Caroline Evans, Cathy Horyn, and Valerie Steele.