The Fashion Show Goes Live

Beginning with Alexander McQueen's infamous attempt to live stream his 2009 Plato's Atlantis collection on SHOWStudio, this book traces how digital and social media have disrupted social structures within the field of fashion, and transformed the way it is communicated and consumed. Analysing key case studies, from Chanel, Givenchy, Yeezy and Opening Cermony to interactive social media and 'see now buy now' campaigns from Burberry, Topshop and Tommy Hilfiger, The Fashion Show Goes Live analyses the mode and impact of fashion shows' transmission. Through the rise of experimental film, fashion shows tailored for media transmission and the use of live streaming and social media to render shows 'immediate' to consumers, fashion weeks - and fashion shows - have become not just trend barometers but material sites that demonstrate media's effects.
Rebecca Halliday evaluates the performativity of consumer relations to such live streams and other mediatized content. In linking these relations back to fashion show footage, she demonstrates that although intended to communicate fashion to mass audiences, these practices also promote it as exclusive and aspirational. Despite democratized, international access to content, the shows themselves remain elite events; kindling new forms of consumer attention, interaction, immaterial labour and desire.
Through the microcosm of the fashion show, The Fashion Show Goes Live asks broader socio-political questions about the effects of the fashion industry's mediatization, challenging the notion that new technology has fostered inclusivity.

Rebecca Halliday is Assistant Teaching Professor and Professional Communication Adviser in the Department of English at the University of Victoria, Canada. Previously, she taught at Toronto Metropolitan University in its School of Professional Communication and School of Fashion.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Function of Fashion Weeks
Economies of Fashion, and Fashion as Cultural Field
Economies of Mediatization and Performance
economies of affect
Fashion Shows in Tension with Fashion Films
Organizational Structure
1. The Fashion Show and/as Theatre
100% Lost Cotton, Opening Ceremony Spring/Summer 2015
Historical Confluences Between Fashion and Theatre
100 Years Later: 100% Lost Cotton at New York Fashion Week
Conclusion
2. The Fashion Show as Immersive Simulation
Fashion as Immersive Simulation
Chanel Supermarket Fashion Show, Fall/Winter 2014
Kanye West - Yeezy Season 3, Fall/Winter 2016
Conclusion
3. Fashion Show Footage: From Newsreel to Live Stream
Internet Spectatorship and 'Real Time'
Fashion Shows on Film
Fashion on Television
Fashion-Themed Television in Film
Fashion Shows in Television Series (or Fashion Television)
Fashion Shows and/as Sporting Events
Fashion in the Live Stream
The Handheld Live Stream
The Handheld Front Row Perspective as Moving Image
Conclusion
4. Social Media Fashion Shows: Interactive and Exclusive
Fashion Shows as Pleasurable Interaction
Burberry and Topshop-Digital Competitors
Burberry - Digital Interaction in the Luxury Market
Burberry Prorsum, Autumn/Winter 2015 - #TweetCam
Topshop - Ready-to-Wear Takes to the High Street
Topshop Unique, Autumn/Winter 2015 - #livetrends
Conclusion
5. Manufactured Affect in the Fashion Show Preshow
(Re)Mediation as Increased Brand Access
Topshop Unique Autumn/Winter 2015 Live Stream Preshow
Affective Labour/Mediation of Affect at the Topshop Preshow
Textual Reactions to the Topshop Preshow
Conclusion
6. 'This is the runway': the Camera as Scriptive Thing at New York Fashion Week
The Camera as Scriptive Thing or Scriptive Prop
Indoor Audience-Performer Relations
Outdoor Observations at New York Fashion Week
Camera Interactions on the 'Street'
Models 'Off Duty' at Fashion Week
Street Style Photography as Embodied Practice
Street Style Photography as Cultural Practice
The Photograph as Dance
The Photograph as Action Sequence
Conclusion
7. the Fashion Show as Mediatized Proliferation
Fashion Shows as Photographic 'Moments'
Versace Spring/Summer 2018 and Spring/Summer 2020 as Late-Postmodern Mediatization
The Fashion Show as Spectacular Entertainment
Givenchy Spring/Summer 2016 Ready-to-Wear in New York
Tommy Hilfiger's 'See Now Buy Now' Spectaculars
Conclusion
Conclusion: Fashion's Pandemic-Era Pause
References