London Fashion Week SS20 : Cottweiler Exclusive Digital Chic
“Welcome to London. It’s Wednesday afternoon, a gloomy day and rain is expected to come down any minute now. Going out right now would most certainly require bringing an umbrella and some proper waterproof footwear. Well, I guess it’s lucky then that you can attend this fashion show from the comfort of your own home with a warm cup of tea.”
(Gabriella)
“As some say that it is fashionable to be late, we cannot complain about the show being delayed, as it allowed me to be able to see the show live from my smartphone, just minutes after landing at Heathrow airport. Making my way through Terminal 2, I couldn’t help but feel like the Traveler from Look 19. I opted for a double espresso, plugged my phone in and luckily made it for the show.”
(Monika)
It’s here and now that the SS20 collection of Cottweiler decided to go digital. And this leaves us with an interesting thought: is technology a phase, or is it here to stay?
For we have witnessed a relationship between fashion and technology before over the years. We’ve seen it in all shapes and forms: the LG x Prada phone; cars and high-end clothing brand combos: Fiat 500 x Gucci and Maserati x Fendi; and much tech on the runway like Alexander McQueen with SS19 robot spray-on dress; the Kate Moss hologram of AW06; and Burberry’s collaboration with Apple to capture its SS14 collection on iPhone.
So the innovation here with the Cottweiler event is that this was not your average runway show but that everything took place only in the digital world and in the numeric world alone. And as such it somewhat resembles an art film beamed in from outer space rather than a seasonal fashion collection presentation.
Also, with fashion’s ever-growing obsession with the ‘front row’ it was quite a relief to see the lack of it here. Rather than looking out for whom we are able to recognize at a show, we instead get to focus on the looks and the inspiration behind the collection.
The production started with a male model walking, or perhaps appearing, out of a deep red desert background, slightly translucent, as if from a desert mirage. And as we’ve seen at other shows this season, including Marni, Saint Laurent and Versace, we were able to notice a very specific layering trend – as in shirt on shirt.
An Egyptian inspiration was notable throughout the presentation of the collection, as the music was brought to you by Anglo – Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas and Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai which perfectly complemented the changing digital background ambiance and which made you feel like in trance. And magically in the digital translucent imagery some of the accessories would become more notable and visible as usual: necklaces and belt like chains with vase-shape charms which reminded of a deep ancient past or far future yet to come; either the pagan and imperial Egyptian sands of old, or the yet to be explored dunes of Mars in some distant unknown future.
And so with this narrowcast form of broadcasting Cottweiler allowed anyone who was invited to a private digital link to be able to experience and be part of the show. Where innovation was taken to the next level with a live performance being painted with digital visual effects in real-time. And this was quite spectacular, but perhaps more as an art form rather than a presentation of a new collection because the slow transitions of backgrounds sometimes may have the tendency to steal focus from the runway looks as the interesting digital effects make the models appear out of nowhere while leaving them translucent rather than in HD. So that it becomes difficult to see some of the sartorial details.
Nevertheless, here at Endymion we highly praise and acclaim the revolutionary and important step in style innovation in the realm of fashion as brought to you exclusively by the House of Cottweiler. Because the effects of this SS20 show are so beautiful to behold. Let’s call it Digital Chic. Surely must be a sign of our times.
Review by Gabriella & Monika
Photos by Cottweiler
