Well it has finally happened to Melbourne Fashion Festival. What was once, authentic and creative designer expression has been rail-roaded by the money men and logo-slappers. Seems to happen everywhere these days.
For years, my shoes have been used on the runways in this show. Used by the likes of Kenzo, Hugo Boss, and local boys Leopold. But not any more. Over a month ago the Leopold lads were working through my collection to find all the right shoes for their collection show this Friday in Melbourne. But they were in for a rude shock!
Apparently designers don't get to put together their looks anymore. Apparently designers can't choose what shoes to match with their clothes...like that matters or something. Who would have thought? Nope, now there are "footwear sponsors". Yep, companies that don't get invited to the party, but buy their way in anyhow. And after they've stuffed a few thousand dollars into the right pockets they can turn around and deny entry to the talent. "Sponsor's shoes only, Sir".
So there you go. The shoes you see on the runway are there as a result of corporate handshakes and the Melbourne Fashion Festival's decision to muddy the fashion waters and offer the people a fashion product not born of designer vision or fashion integrity, but of greed. And their core product, fashion, will be sub-standard now and towards the future.
I saw TV ads for the festival as far up as in Queensland...I guess the money has to come from somewhere.
What I might do, as an interesting exercise, is take the runway shots from the Leopold show and ask them to pick the shoes they would have chosen to go with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment