Wallets, balloons, books, keys, mugs, and puzzle magazines. What do these objects have in common? They were invitations for parades!
During fashion week between flashes and catwalks, the most original invitations delivered directly to the homes of those who have ‘access’ to the show rows emerge. In recent years, several brands have caught the media’s attention with unexpected and provocative proposals, such as Balenciaga‘s Iphone with a broken screen at the F/W 2022 fashion show.
Here are some cool and original invitations for us!
This week’s invitations
Looking back at the fashion week just past, Valentino chose to pay tribute to guests with a personalized edition of the book Una vita come tante by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hanya Yanagihar, which was also the central theme of the show set at Milan State University.
Prada, surprising the audience during the show with waterfalls of jelly from the ceiling, delivered to its guests a box with a kind of black headband, about which stylenotcom wondered “a headbeand? Or glasses?”
Jw Anderson, on the other hand, matched his invitation with the theme of the location: a blue tea pot with white lines, just like the setting of the fashion show.
The coolest invitations of the past, among others
Back one fashion week, on Feb. 22, Diesel created very special invitations: a pack of Durex condoms signed by the brand, which were also present during the fashion show space with more than 200 thousand packs. “Have fun, respect yourself, and be safe,” creative director Glenn Martens had declared at the time.
Balenciaga is one of the brands that has attracted the most attention when it comes to invitations over the years. After the broken Iphone, for the SS 2023 season, the Demna-led brand had a ‘lost’ black leather wallet with ‘Balenciaga’ written on it filled with personal belongings and bills delivered to guests as an invitation. For Paris Fashion Week last February, Balenciaga gave guests a paper pattern to make a blazer to underscore the brand’s new concept after the scandal of previous months: more clothes, less entertainment. And, again, just a month ago ahead of the digital fashion show for spring 2024, the brand invited attendees with a retro-style, brass hotel key with the double-B logo imprinted on it, and a nameplate inside a minimal-looking gray box. On the nameplate were revealed all the details for attending the digital fashion show, and those of the boutique location at 10 Avenue George V.
For the Cormio brand’s latest fashion show, he offered a tasty invitation: a Goleador fruit candy along with the press release for the event.
Sunnei, before putting on the show, sent actual instructions for use with the words, “Leave your expectations out of this building, remove preconceptions and shake off assumptions. 2. Now forget about the perfection of the perfect and embrace reality. 3. Okay, you have entered the SUNNEI state of mind.”
Extra fashion week, only a month ago, Jacquemus to invite friends to the opening of the new temporary store, open until October, in Portofino sent a plate of pasta with his brand’s initials, along with a tomato sauce. Appetite comes by parading!
We just have to wait what other surprises the brands have in store for us for the upcoming fashion weeks!
And which invitation did you prefer?
by Giorgia Dallasio
June 22, 2023
