Fashion is a very organized little world. There are ways and costumes, kings and queens, jesters and princesses, there’s an etiquette, a code, you never can learn it all, and it’s oddly fascinating. Contrary to what we might think, most of the people are delicate and distinguished. It’s fashionable to be detached. But everything is seen, everything is known.
The front row of the runway shows is the be all and end all best place to see the clothes. After the third row, you don’t see the shoes anymore and after the fifth, you’re lucky if you can get a look at the hair styles. The seats up front are coveted. Because they’re also the seats the most seen. You get them with celebrity, through experience or sheer will. They crystallize many dramas and give rise to many wonderful crises of the ego.
This season, the designers for Dolce & Gabbana had a revelation. In talking with clients, they realized their clients spent a lot of time on the internet, were incredibly informed, wanted everything to go quickly and were ready to buy right away. They realized that it was a new age and one need advance with the time.
They decided to open their giant doors to four bloggers.
Voilà. That’s how Tommy, Brian, Scott and I ended up in the cherished front row seats for the D&G and Dolce & Gabbana shows.
It was a really strange feeling, especially because they pulled out a good amount of pomp and circumstance. At the first show, they left four laptops, perfectly lined up in front of our chairs. We were the only ones out of everyone at the show to be entitled to that special treatment. But I never comment on a show during a show and as you know, I only tweet orally, haha.
But although suddenly being catapulted onto the A-list of a prestigious design house is really validating, it’s also really embarrassing. And in this universe of set codes and delicately kept rights-of-passages, it pisses everyone off just a little.
But after all, why not? Except for the fact that after a few seconds and a few cross looks, I don’t think we wanted to be the incarnation of this new age. Stay discrete, do things at my own pace, and keep on caring less where my seat is at a show.
But that’s how it is. And when someone gives you a gift as complicated as this to open, you have to know just how to accept it.
I took the opportunity to see the other side of everything from backstage and the VIP room, where they pamper all the celebrities before the show.
On the wall, a photo of Monica Vitti, signed. I couldn’t resist.
I also wanted to meet Stefano and Demenico. First and foremost, I wanted to thank them, but then I wanted their point of view on this micro-happening. As they were the first to roll out the red carpet for bloggers, I really wanted to know what they thought… I wanted to know if their arms were truly open.
This was before I took into account their incredible charisma. I was won over the second I shook their hands. This is why I’ll never be a journalist: I have absolutely zero objectivity. I asked them a whole bunch of questions, and I definitely liked their fresh answers. Just as I said up top, for them, everything is about the clients. If their clients like the internet, it’s about time for them to get interested as well.
And what they want in the end is to communicate their idea. What they were saying was that it isn’t just a runway show to them, it’s an idea, an inspiration. They like the idea that you can find inspiration for a dress Dolce and buy a vintage one for 2 € at the market. And for them, the internet is the most direct way to communicate their concept.
Just for you, here’s the inspiration wall, found backstage. A beautiful collection and an homage to their beginnings and their “Italianité.”
Oh, and a little glimpse of the gigantic catwalk seen from the VIP room.
and here’s me, in a JOGGING SHIRT, with Stefano and Domenico, happy that I had my crazy-ass fashiony shoes to make up for it.
A moment I really liked just before leaving was the moment where the whole team got together to watch the show. Amazing ambiance, Scott had to pull me by the collar to get me to peel myself away.
And there you go, funny little adventure for me, cute and very interesting at the same time. I was wondering what you’d think of everything. But what I remember most were the lacquered walls, the black lace and red lips, that film-like music. And then the eyes of Sofia.
