Vogue Runway show review.
March 31, 2025Vogue Runway show review. An immersive 45-minute film which is designed to be shown on all four sides of the room and sometimes even the floor. It is shown on a seamless loop which viewers can join at any point. The content is less in depth than quick a scroll through Instagram reels, but the visuals can be lovely. A perfect lightweight bit of fun for a date or a catch-up with friends before cocktails at nearby Coal Drops Yard.
I had the hazy impression – or maybe assumption – beforehand that it was several spaces showing different films, as in a traditional museum installation. But the entire show takes place in one room. And it is one film, of just 45 minutes. I have been complaining of films at the cinema stretching out to close to two and a half hours recently using sequences that should have been more shorter (I’m looking at you, Anora) and everything under that being called “a slip of a thing” but 45 minutes is certainly short enough to hold anyone’s attention. Mind you, this room is four stories high and the projections fully cover three walls and the floor. The fourth wall is broken up with seating and entrances, but is also projected upon.
Vogue Runway show review – unexpected seating
Vogue Runway show review. Image G Jones
The seating is very carefully and thoughtfully designed. There are moveable buffets of different sizes, cushions piled on the floor, and a tiered seating area in both corners, as well as two standing viewing areas higher up, the topmost of which was closed when I went. This means that you can sit on the floor or choose a seat. Moving around I found that the best view came from either tucking yourself into the highest corner of the tiered seating or from standing and looking from above. If you get down on the floor nearest the screens you are continually twisting to see the screen behind you, and your field of vision is restricted too much. Also, there are no projections on the ceiling. So there’s not much point in lying down, unless you feel more comfortable that way.
On publicity photos, people are seen standing and walking around, as if they were at an art opening. That’s probably a good way to experience it too. Each screen shows a different related image or film clip and so you’re going to want to try and see it all at once. Examples include a catwalk show seen from the traditional end-of-the-runway viewpoint on the front screen but also from each side shown on the corresponding screen.
A Quick Run Through of Some Designers
Vogue Runway show review. Image G Jones
The content isn’t chronological. It darts about. There are short snatches of a designer’s bio. This includes a quote from them about their history in their own voices. Then shows the catwalk shows they designed. There is a little bit of archive history that rapidly covers the decades. Poiret was mentioned and Halston a few moments later. These via Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, and all the Greatest Hits of the fashion world.
Vogue Runway show review – Enveloping
But these seem like something hastily penned to fit in with the title and to give the audience a chance to coo over old fashioned fashion. It all really feels like it comes alive as a spectacle when the more recent runway shows come on. Enlivened with digital animation and music, some amazing drone footage shows Karl Lagerfeld’s Great Wall of China show for Fendi in 2007. Commentators gush about how much effort and imagination he contributed to his fashion shows.
My eyes were popping out of my head when the scale of the films reinforces the scale of his shows. Not only the Great Wall of China, which is obviously massive, but a space shuttle taking off, an entire brightly coloured supermarket with models strolling around pretending to do a bit of shopping, and a beach, complete with lapping water. It all looks like a Hollywood film set, but one that is created for just one night. His budget must have been unlimited.
Vogue Runway show review. Image G Jones
Vogue Runway show review. Image G Jones
Some Famous Runways
Martine Rose’s may well not have been in 2018. She did her catwalk in a Camden cul-de-sac, neighbours looking on. Democratic, but not much magic there. By contrast, in 2020, Jacquemus’s non-traditional catwalk location was the countryside of Provence. Models paced the lavender fields, here projected all around so you are bathed in gentle purple. Another show recreates the salon show of old, with models appearing posing in beautiful gilded doorways, here rendered gigantic.
Two of Alexander McQueen’s most famous shows are here as well; the one in 1999 where Shalom Harlow is attacked by a robot spray painter and the one in 2001 where Michelle Olley is helplessly slumped naked in a glass cube, breathing heavily through a respirator. But neither look good, both because of the grainy quality of the footage, and the attitude towards his models.
Switching the Script
I felt watching it that if someone else had done it this concept Harlow would have raised her arms to the sky, declaring “Paint me, Robo!” as the robot does her queenly bidding, creating a new outfit for the day. But she stumbles away reeling. As for Olley’s turn, I imagine a scenario where she has chosen to recline protected in her box, glaring at the outside world who are at risk from something that doesn’t affect her. The audience are the freak show and not her.
There are a huge host of fashion names included in here. Including the less well-known as well as more obvious ones. The collaboration between Lightroom and Vogue ensures a huge amount of material, although I felt that there was very little overt connection to the magazine as such, discounting a few shots of charming vintage covers.
VOGUE: Inventing the Runway is at Lightroom, Lewis Cubitt Square, until 29 June 2025.
