We just got back from the Viktor & Rolf show. Have you been? Everyone’s invited, don’t you know. And no, you don’t have to teleport to Paris and back on your lunch hour (that is, if you still have one these days). This season Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren unveiled their new collection in an online-only fashion show, which you can watch here from the front row that is your place of work. The online-only format is a product of the “transition to new ownership by Renzo Rosso’s Only the Brave Srl,” WWD reported a couple of weeks ago. But here’s the important question: Does it prove Cathy Horyn was right about real, live fashion shows being obsolete in the age of the Internet? Well, this enabled the designers to do a number of things live shows don’t, like use only one model — Shalom Harlow — who magically appears on the runway three times at once. And we can see detail shots of the shoes and clothes in a way one couldn’t even from the front row of a live show.
But there are a lot of problems with this method, too. First, the look book isn’t going online until October 6, so getting images of the show for blog posts like this requires tedious screen-grabbing, which probably leads to less runway images from the show going up in cyberspace than if the photo wires were there to photograph them. Also, nothing compares to seeing clothes in person.
Second, this collection was called “Funny Face.” That failed to come across in the online presentation, unless it simply refers to Shalom’s red eye shadow. But they could have incorporated graphics or some other snazzy effect to enhance the show and take advantage of the Internet. And, coming after a fall ‘08 collection with the words “NO” and “WOW” shaved into fur jackets, something felt lacking in this collection. Then again, maybe we were just distracted by the time it takes the damn video to load. And our blogging machines aren’t even old and crappy.
Viktor & Rolf: Spring 2009 Video [Victor-Rolf.com]
Related: Viktor & Rolf Won’t Do a Runway Show for Paris Fashion Week (Updated)
