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Thursday, February 06, 2025
Chanel builds sculptural runway in newly restored Grand Palais
www.dezeen.com: Designer Willo Perron has created a curving runway for the Spring-Summer 2025 show for fashion house Chanel, which took place in the newly restored Grand Palais in Paris.
I think it’s crazy how many people don’t consider couture and runway fashion to be art! One of my first interactions with costume design was looking through old Mugler runways from the 90s—AW Haute Couture 1995, 1997, and 1998 were the collections that got me interested in clothes for the first time. Still, I’ve rarely thought about the lighting design and scenic design that go into these runways, as well! Willo Perron’s spiraling, structural pathway not only serves as a place for the audience to watch from but also as a walkway for the models themselves. It works really well with the Chanel brand, as well. Putting a very modern structure into the Grand Palais (a very old, grand building) connects with Chanel’s ____ of reinventing classic silhouettes. I wonder if runway design is a field in itself, or if Perron does other types of scenic design as well. Either way, I can’t wait to see what she does next!
Wow. this is super cool I think that people forget that modeling is an art and has so much design that goes into it you need a Scenic designer and a lighting designer and a good costume designer makeup designer for these Runway shows and I feel like people really disassociate it from the world of entertainment and theater and arts but really it is within that room. so for me, it's super interesting to see this sculptural Runway because it's Scenic Design at its core and it's really beautiful I'm sure this designer did a whole bunch of draftings and section views and color samples against the clothes so I just find it really interesting and cool that Channel is indulging in such a cool art form and sculptural aspect of their Runway shows. I think this also shows how broad work you can do when you are a designer you know you could do fashion shows you could do TV you could do live theater you can do interior design like you really can do anything that you set your mind to.
My first thought when looking at these photos was: where is the backstage? I think that the creativity with runway design is beautiful. It brings even more visual intrigue and a certain uniqueness to the show. Coupled with the symbolism in the fashion the more physical symbolism of the architecture brings light on the amount of thought and care that goes into creating a spectacular event like Chanel’s Spring-Summer 2025 show. It also seems to help with audience seating, everyone is either in the first or second row. If someone has a fear of heights the lack of substantial railings might prove a distraction from the show itself. If someone is ever conscious of the height they are at it can take their attention away from the expertly crafted clothing that is on display. This distraction is also true of being seated on a ramp, I wonder if the seats were made to be level or if they were angled to be parallel to the ramp itself.
I think that fashion shows are a really unexplored type of performance. When I think of them it's always a long white straight walkway, which after a while I feel can get kind of boring. This is also evident when googling 'fashion show'. You get pictures of cool clothes on boring walkways. While I understand that they don't want other elements to distract from the clothes, I feel like there are ways to be creative about the show while still keeping the focus on the pieces. Exactly like this show, where they made the runway curve around and ramp up. They were able to break the standard and do something new, while still keeping the focus on the main event. I am curious to see if this will inspire future events to do something similar to this, or if they will keep with the same old thing that has been done for the past several years.
4 comments:
I think it’s crazy how many people don’t consider couture and runway fashion to be art! One of my first interactions with costume design was looking through old Mugler runways from the 90s—AW Haute Couture 1995, 1997, and 1998 were the collections that got me interested in clothes for the first time. Still, I’ve rarely thought about the lighting design and scenic design that go into these runways, as well! Willo Perron’s spiraling, structural pathway not only serves as a place for the audience to watch from but also as a walkway for the models themselves. It works really well with the Chanel brand, as well. Putting a very modern structure into the Grand Palais (a very old, grand building) connects with Chanel’s ____ of reinventing classic silhouettes. I wonder if runway design is a field in itself, or if Perron does other types of scenic design as well. Either way, I can’t wait to see what she does next!
Wow. this is super cool I think that people forget that modeling is an art and has so much design that goes into it you need a Scenic designer and a lighting designer and a good costume designer makeup designer for these Runway shows and I feel like people really disassociate it from the world of entertainment and theater and arts but really it is within that room. so for me, it's super interesting to see this sculptural Runway because it's Scenic Design at its core and it's really beautiful I'm sure this designer did a whole bunch of draftings and section views and color samples against the clothes so I just find it really interesting and cool that Channel is indulging in such a cool art form and sculptural aspect of their Runway shows. I think this also shows how broad work you can do when you are a designer you know you could do fashion shows you could do TV you could do live theater you can do interior design like you really can do anything that you set your mind to.
My first thought when looking at these photos was: where is the backstage? I think that the creativity with runway design is beautiful. It brings even more visual intrigue and a certain uniqueness to the show. Coupled with the symbolism in the fashion the more physical symbolism of the architecture brings light on the amount of thought and care that goes into creating a spectacular event like Chanel’s Spring-Summer 2025 show. It also seems to help with audience seating, everyone is either in the first or second row. If someone has a fear of heights the lack of substantial railings might prove a distraction from the show itself. If someone is ever conscious of the height they are at it can take their attention away from the expertly crafted clothing that is on display. This distraction is also true of being seated on a ramp, I wonder if the seats were made to be level or if they were angled to be parallel to the ramp itself.
I think that fashion shows are a really unexplored type of performance. When I think of them it's always a long white straight walkway, which after a while I feel can get kind of boring. This is also evident when googling 'fashion show'. You get pictures of cool clothes on boring walkways. While I understand that they don't want other elements to distract from the clothes, I feel like there are ways to be creative about the show while still keeping the focus on the pieces. Exactly like this show, where they made the runway curve around and ramp up. They were able to break the standard and do something new, while still keeping the focus on the main event. I am curious to see if this will inspire future events to do something similar to this, or if they will keep with the same old thing that has been done for the past several years.
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