It’s been a while since Paris Fashion Week is definitely over, but still I haven’t shared all my thoughts, yet, which is mostly because of my very down-to-earth job that unfortunately takes way too much of my time and which has nothing of the eccentricity of the sparkling and exciting world of fashion. So I’m a little late on my report, but I start to recognize that this might not be too bad, since there are maybe not as many competing texts circulating than only two weeks ago. By the way, this actually brings me right to the topic I want to discuss, because quite a huge part is about the competition which is related to blogging. Although I didn’t believe it, I gave in to this competition much faster than I thought. And so, I did the exact opposite of what I announced in my last post just a couple of days later: I actually took pictures of other bloggers. Even worse, I became one of those celebrity stalkers who were running from fashion show to fashion show, hoping to get a glimpse and maybe a picture of some famous person who would attend. The only defense I have is that I really liked the outfits you can now see on my pictures. And since I was already there, why not taking a picture of some celebrities as well? Thinking about it, it also seems rather stupid to me not to take this or that kind of pictures just as a matter of principle. But even though it still feels as if I somehow betrayed myself, I could also notice a clear difference between my behavior and the conduct of other bloggers and photographers and I suddenly realized, how hard it is to make people notice you as a blogger, photographer or even as a journalist. There are just so many blogs, articles, fashion magazines, and every single one comes up with a huge special about Paris Fashion Week. The only way to survive in this struggle is to get as many likes and re-posts as possible. And unfortunately, all it needs to get there is a bunch of pictures; they don’t even necessarily need to be good, more important is that a famous name is tagged to them. And it perfectly makes sense: why shouldn’t people get excited about Iggy Azalea’s see-through top she was wearing at the Maison Martin Margiela show and that gave a very explicit Idea of her nipples? And so, star hunting seems to be one of the main occupation of photographers and bloggers, and it couldn’t have been more obvious than on that Sunday, 29 September. It was actually a very quiet day, compared to Friday and Saturday. Probably this was due to the fact that the venues were scattered all over Paris instead of being all in the same area and since it took more time to get from one show to another, I guess that star hunters were more selective by choosing the places they wanted to go. But still, when Olivia Palermo was spotted after the Chloé runway show, she caused a huge traffic jam. People went totally crazy and started to scream her name, chasing her, trying to get a picture. It was ridiculous. In contrast to that, when André Léon Talley showed up at the exit of the Maison Rabih Kayrouz show at Palais de Tokyo, people almost overlooked him. No screaming, no hysteria. It was as if there was a kind of disconnection: every one of the present crowd seemed as if they wanted to belong to the fashion scene really bad. But I got the impression that it was just a shallow behavior because those bloggers and photographers clearly were much more interested in the hype about Paris Fashion Week, and so, a few powerful personalities, who maybe don’t have the same notoriety as people who regularly appear in the yellow press, were slightly ignored. And this made me think of something else: How do all the people who are actually invited to the fashion shows actually experience this whole craziness? I’m really wondering if it’s not awful at some moments. Imagine, you get your invitation, which is awesome, and you already think about being part of an exclusive crowd who has the great chance to see one of the most beautiful spectacles of the year. You dress up as it befits a rich, important and elegant person, you take your beautifully designed invitation which was sent to you by post, not by e-mail, and you’re ready to go to the biggest event there is in the glamorous fashion scene. But then, when you get out of the luxury car which happens to be your personal taxi, you have to face the humongous crowd of hungry photographers and bloggers who are craving stardust, not hesitating attacking their prey and shoot as many photos as they can.
I used to work with a guy who had an invitation to a few Paris Fashion Week shows in 2012 and he was hesitating going there. Of course I told him he should go, and I nagged him about taking me there, too. In the end, he told me he was too tired and that he just wanted to spend a quiet night at home instead of being surrounded by hundreds of people. At that time, I thought that this was the craziest thing he could have ever said and I didn’t understand at all why he didn’t want to go to splendid Paris Fashion Week. Now I do understand.