Fashion week: Blood, sweat and tears…

Fashion Week is one of the most anticipated events of the year in the fashion world. As it comes round again next month, our reporter Melissa Green looks at the history and secret world of the fashion industry.

The world-famous fashion weeks, in New York, Paris, London and Milan, known as the ‘big four’, are hugely influential, determining global trends, and what’s in our wardrobes each and every season.

The runway shows, held twice a year in the four cities, are the Holy Grail for any fashion magazine editor, celebrity, high street retailer and most definitely any aspiring fashionista.

Fashion week was founded in 1943 New York. It started off as a simple basic event, to provide an escape from the Second World War. Now the shows themselves are extremely glamorous events filled with celebrities, designers, ‘it-girls’ and anyone lucky enough to be invited. These days the shows are heavily commercialised and often companies have major bidding wars for the right to sponsor the events.

Even though the shows aren’t open to the general public, they are often widely reported in the media, so the world can keep up to date with all the latest fashion news and views.

The anticipation for the events grows year on year with shows held for all genres of fashion and design ranging from Miami Fashion Week to Rio Summer and even Bridal Fashion shows.

This year Burberry is set to make a big comeback in the London fashion week shows, as it is rumoured that they will be reviving some of their classic collections giving the a modern twist.

The London events are Hollywood inspired and are held in the decadent Somerset House building in the capital. New York Fashion Week, or as it is commercially known Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, is held in the prestigious Upper East Side of Manhattan and attracts tourists from all over the world who come to see the fashion festivities all over the city. Paris fashion week is held in the Carrousel du Louvre, alongside the world famous Louvre museum. Milan fashion week is seen as the renaissance on the runway, and is usually a very extravagant event held in impressive sites throughout the city. The shows are renowned for being very exuberant and flamboyant with lots of glitz and glamour.

New York kicks off the fashion season closely followed by London, Milan and lastly Paris. Each city has two shows for the major seasons, spring/summer in February followed by autumn/winter in September. But, there are also shows which run throughout the year as designers expand their lines. These shows are what determine what trends are ‘in’ and which are ‘out’.

The events include approximately 50 official, scheduled catwalk shows as well as another 50 unofficial shows. The runway typically showcases about 170 designers’ collections, some well known such as Chanel and some less well known, itching to make it big in the fashion industry.

Modern fashion, as we know it, owes itself in large part to the success of its previous trends and styles. Many styles have made comebacks throughout fashion history, with shoulder pads and flared jeans enjoying recent success.

It is almost guaranteed that the trends which you see in the high-street fashion stores have been individually handpicked from the catwalk by fashion greats. American Vogue editors Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley are seen as God like figures in the fashion industry with the power to bring trends to life.

Many critics question whether the trends showcased on the runway are achievable in everyday life or are merely just art, though most would say it is your own individual take.

Sian Hulse, a fashion student from Surrey believes that fashion is a very personal thing. She says, “Fashion has always been a major part of my life. Ever since I was young I used to dress up and try different combinations of outfits. I began getting really interested in fashion when I was a teenager, I used to just design clothes and draw them on people as I imagined they should be wearing them. It's always fun to take something completely abstract and make it work on the body. Fashion Week is extremely inspiring to me, I love seeing the new trends and each designer’s take on them.”

The fashion industry is now within reach of aspiring designers through graduate schemes as well as internships and competitions. “I try to get my work out there as much as I can,” says Sian. “I have my own website showcasing all my designs and I enter as many competitions as I can. I’m having so much fun right now preparing all my work for my graduate fashion show, it’s really exciting. I just can’t wait until I can actually get my designs recognised, then who knows where it could go from there. Maybe one day I’ll have my own spot on a London Fashion Week show.”

There are many competitions open to young designers hoping to get their big break. Graduate Fashion Week, established in 1991, is a yearly show, which displays works from university students. Recently, designer Christopher Kane shot to stardom in the fashion industry after being discovered showcasing his designs on the catwalk. The 24-year-old, who began his fashion career by creating his own line with his sister, found his break in the fashion industry after winning a similar Harrods design award. He has since become a well-known name in the fashion industry collaborating with the likes of shoe designing legend Manuel “Manolo” Blahnik Rodriguez.

The runway has attracted bad press down the years over the controversial model scandals. There has been a lot of criticism over designer’s choices of models, many saying that the fashion industry encourages a ‘size-zero’ culture after the investigation of several deaths of models in 2007. The shock stories in the media paint a bad picture of the fashion industry giving the impression that it is a world fuelled by image. Last February, stylists from the designer Mark Fast’s team controversially resigned from the London Fashion Week shows after they refused to showcase their figure-hugging designs on size 12 and 14 models. The British Fashion Council has since fought back, stipulating that only healthy looking models and over 16s can be featured in the London Fashion Week shows as they do not want to be seen to be glamorising anorexia or any other eating disorders or diets associated with being a supermodel.

Fashion has become a way of life for many young girls with magazines such as Vogue and Grazia making it more achievable than ever.