12/7/2023 0 Comments Fashion show runway game![]() ![]() The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted by time, materials and theme. It was an elegant and perfectly-timed study of existentialism in the digital era.Project Runway is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on December 1, 2004. Escapism is an obvious motif in turbulent times, but rather than getting airy-fairy about it, Gvasalia’s collection sent us into outer space – into virtual reality – and plonked us firmly back on Planet Earth again to actually deal with reality. The title Afterworld stands for the world not only post-pandemic but also the world I hope we will live in at one point in the near future: somewhat ‘unpolished’, exciting, free and spiritual.” Armour and spacesuits may evoke ideas of self-protection, fright and flight, but in the eyes of young gamers, they represent the wonder and adventure of the past and the future. “‘Apocalyptic’ is very last season to me,” Gvasalia said, “despite the fact that our show at the end of February actually did reflect and somehow predict the horrors we would all have to face a few days post that show. And my job as a dressmaker is to explore that relation between the human body and what it wears.”Įxperienced through the somewhat gritty lens of virtual reality – and within Gvasalia’s muted set – the show’s characters felt like a cast of heroes and anti-heroes: survivors of an apocalypse, the inhabitants of a new world. The articulation of that medieval armour, however, is exactly the same as that of a futuristic robot or android, because the human body is still the same all those centuries later. It can be seen as a sort of a military sportswear of the time, which protected the warriors but also made their movements possible in battle. “We used the exact craftsmanship used in the Middle Ages to make the armour. This is a metaphor, but in reality, the armour in this collection was made to connect the long-forgotten past to the much-awaited future,” Gvasalia said. So, in a way, the way we dress does play a role in our self-protection. It completes our personal identities and shows us in the way we want to be visually perceived by the world around us. “Fashion in its essence is a sort of armour today. The valiant astronaut made an appearance, too, mixing with the likes of face-painted goths and post-apocalyptic characters in ragged knitwear, ripped and patched-up denim, tattered cocktail dresses, and massive threaded coats that looked like gutted teddy bears. The knight in shining armour materialised, quite literally, in shining armour a nod, no doubt, to Nicolas Ghesquière’s spring/summer 2007 robot collection for Balenciaga, but reinterpreted in medieval chevalier form in beautiful pieces forged by bona fide armour-makers in France. Inspired by the video game Gvasalia created as part of the show, the looks in the collection represented the players featured in the game, which in turn referenced classic video game archetypes. ![]() And next to all that we will still need clothes to express ourselves through.” Only the true and authentic creative intelligence will be able to pass a long-term test of survival. ![]() “It is unknown territory, but a very exciting one. “The fashion industry will have to face this inevitable new chapter and come up with its own solutions in everything from how it deals with creativity and innovation to how it makes and communicates product,” Gvasalia told me after the show, reflecting on his format. At one point, I caught myself thinking I should be wearing shoes, then remembered I was alone, on my sofa, in London. real-life editors and buyers hadn’t been recreated, although I think Justin Bieber may have been three seats down the row from me. The highly diverse audience was fictional – i.e. So vivid were the details that you could turn to the people around you and study their body language and wardrobe. Set in a blacked-out venue with a raised runway and a soundtrack reminiscent of a video game score, it was literally like being there IRL. For those of us who haven’t played a video game since Nintendo NES circa 1989, watching a fashion show in virtual reality is completely mind-blowing. Inside it was a VR headset with two hand controllers. Two days before the show, a big black Balenciaga box arrived on my doorstep. ![]()
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