Spring Summer 2024 Show Venues With The Wow Factor
Behind every successful fashion show is an equally stunning runway set design.
What does a skate park and a theatre workshop have in common? They all set the scene for Fashion Week’s most dramatic shows for Spring Summer 2024. Ahead, we revisit some of the most unforgettable show venues from Fashion Week.
TORY BURCH
Venue: The Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation in the American Museum of Natural History
What: Designed by architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, this is the new wing of the museum and cave-like concrete surfaces evocative of canyons and Gang’s environmental consciousness. The soaring architecture accentuated the collection’s light and airy aesthetics beautifully.
Venue: Highbury Fields, a park in north London
What: To be specific, Burberry’s chequered tent was set up smack in the middle of a grassy field. It was the perfect set-up to match a collection that hearkens to fruits and meadows, complete with a green carpet resembling the soft grass of the great outdoors.
CHOPOVA LOWENA
Venue: West London’s BaySixty6 Skate Park
What: There is no other fitting spot for designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena to serve their skater-meets-grunge spectacle. To give the show a more authentically subculture vibe, the designers street-cast the models for the show.
Venue: Laboratori Scala Ansaldo at Teatro alla Scala
What: For his swansong at the brand, creative director Walter Chiapponi searched for a venue that echoes Tod's heritage in crafting fine leather goods. He ended up at the cavernous workroom where scenographers, sculptors and carpenters create sets for the Milanese opera house, Teatro alla Scala. Talk about putting on a grand show.
Venue: Deposito hall of Fondazione Prada
What: It was a slime show at Prada for the Spring Summer 2024 show. Clear and thick liquid dripped from the terracotta ceilings onto the beige floor, as models paraded in one of the brand's strongest showings in years.
Venue: An industrial space in eastern Milan
What: The clinical polished tiled flooring and the tropical blooms encased in glass cabinets called to mind a futuristic dystopian universe, where nature is preserved only in artificial and strictly controlled, man-made vitrines.
Venue: Milan’s Bovisa district
What: These models weren’t just walking the runway, they were traversing entire continents. The hand-painted map, with penguins, fish, trees and oceans, evoked wonder, showing guests just how Matthieu Blazy was influenced by cultures and styles all over the world.
Venue: Via Solari 35, the brand's show space for Fashion Week
What: Grand and imposing, pristine white sculptures of Fendi’s signature accessories – like the Baguette bag – stood tall along the walls, resembling Roman pillars that befit the house’s origins.
Venue: L’Observatoire de Paris a.k.a. The Paris Observatory
What: We’ve got three words: shining, shimmering, splendid. The gigantic smashed disco ball, the set’s pièce de résistance, illuminated the space and sparkled in contrast to the comfy ecru canvas lounge where guests got cosy for the show.
Venue: The Institute for Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination in Paris
What: Coperni’s Spring Summer 2024 collection is all about sound, with its show staged 16 metres underground, in a projection room designed by legendary French composer Pierre Boulez. To top it off, fabric sounds were incorporated in the sound design, creating a truly immersive soundscape for guests.
Where: An exhibition space in Porte de Versailles, on the fringes of the French capital
What: Models walked on plastered floors which cracked under the weight of the models' walks. The inspiration for the stage was the surface of the moon and was meant to echo the inspiration of the collection, which was a desert road trip.
Venue: Cour du Dome des Invalides
What: We haven’t seen anything quite as opulent as this – walls draped with red velvet curtains and a massive red carpet floor. The cinematic set is a very in-your-face hint for the guests at the grand show to come – which featured a stellar cast comprising individuals who are dear to creative director Demna.
Venue: 103 avenue des Champs-Elysees
What: Louis Vuitton took its guests on a trip… inside a reimagined hot air balloon which was created as a reminder of the maison’s travel origins. Sails made from low-density polyethylene filled the room with a warm sunset hue, a welcome contrast to the gloomy Paris weather.
Venue: Marche Saxe-Breteuil, one of Paris' most famous markets that comes with a view of the Eiffel Tower
What: On weekends, the Marche Saxe-Breteuil is a popular local market. But for one day only, Stella McCartney transformed it into a 'Stella’s Sustainable Market' with 21 stalls helmed by sustainable innovators and vendors, allowing guests to explore the materials featured in the collection and get up close to similar-minded environmental advocates.
Where: The Garde Republicaine – located in Paris’ fourth arrondissement and a favourite show venue of Hermes for its equestrian connection: It’s the headquarters of the cavalry regiment of the French republican guards.
What: This season, the luxury maison installed a cavernous enclosed room on-site and recreated it within a lush golden meadow filled with reeds and dainty white flowers complete with a snaking, sandy path for the runway. (The place smelled fresh and earthy too – all while bringing to mind the dreamily radiant Un Jardin a Cythere from Hermes Fragrances, a citrus-meets-woody scent inspired by a blonde field on the Greek island of Kythira that was released earlier this year.)