Keywords

1 The Mediatization of Fashion Shows

The interdependence between changes in the media and social change has caused a paradigm of interpretation known in communication studies as mediatization. The study on mediatization has become one of the most fruitful fields of academic research in communication, especially in the last decade, to such an extent that authors such as Hepp, Hjarvard & Lundby point out that “the emergence of the concept of mediatization is part of a paradigmatic shift within media and communication research” [1: 314]. Mediatization has an important potential to explore changes in specific sectors or institutions of contemporary culture. Thus, alongside more general approaches -which speak of the mediatization of culture and everyday life- It is worth recognizing the existence of this phenomenon in areas such as politics, education, religion, science, music, sports, health or diplomacy [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], as well as in fashion [12,13,14,15,16,17,18].

According to D’aloia, Baronian & Pedroni [19] mediatization affects fashion mainly in three types of transformations. The first level of mediatization affects, first of all, social agents in their role of fashion consumers. The second level of mediatization affects the “places” where the display of fashion comes (magazines, catwalks, events, stores…). According to Torregrosa, Serrano-Puche and Sánchez-Blanco [18], at this second level, mediatization explains three major interdependent issues. First, those related to the technological evolution of the media for producing and distributing content. Secondly, those related to the new genres, formats and languages created by these media. And third, in the changes in fashion communication as a strategic element -not only a tool for dissemination- for the definition of brand identity. The third level of mediatization refers to the transformations of the fashion industry as a social institution. The industry’s ability to control, create, use and work with digital media logic has consequences on business models and the rules of the game in the sector.

The study of fashion shows belongs to the second level of mediatization mentioned above. The mediatization of fashion shows supposes that they have turned into “media events” [14]. The catwalks are no longer a mere exhibition of collections in the aisle that gave them their name, to become events broadcast and digitally recorded with a broader purpose: to share the universe of the brand. In other words, they have gone from being exclusive events in a delimited time and space, whose repercussion was conditioned by the brand’s decisions and the mediation of the specialized professional, to disintermediated mass events that find in the digital environment a more intense influence and interaction.

The main changes that mediatization has brought about in fashion shows are: a) live broadcasting through brands’ social networks; b) digital archiving and online availability for on-demand consumption in space and time. The free availability of content has eliminated the rigidity of filters between the presentation of collections and consumers. Digitalization makes it possible to build a relationship with consumers without intermediaries; b) the involvement of influencers as conversation accelerators. Influencers are the top models -they have doubled their role because in addition to parading they share content through their social networks- and celebrities, actresses, singers, bloggers or instagrammers who participate as models or as front row. They participate minimally in the conversation but achieve a high degree of engagement. According to Christianne Philipponne [20], fashion journalist for Forbes magazine: “the marketing strategy of influencers walking the runway might prove to be here to stay, because of its effectiveness in raising talk on collections and raising sales for brands”. c) the design of the garments. The designs are as much an image that will be disseminated globally as a garment that is worn; d) the design of the catwalks. The online dissemination of the fashion show brings it progressively closer to the performing arts. Not only because, as in dance, theater or circus, the body is a means of artistic expression, but also because the fashion show is a scenic representation of an action, of characters, in a specific space that gives meaning to the collection and feeds the aesthetic universe of the brand. The aim is to achieve a total sensory experience, with a staging marked by music and lighting and recorded by cameras strategically located to capture different shots (from close-ups to panoramic), achieving a global vision of everything that happens. The theatricalization of fashion shows is an effective strategy in a space like the digital one where attention is a scarce commodity and brands compete to generate memorable and differential content. With all this, the online dissemination of the fashion show turns it into a popular cultural expression that gives meaning to the collection and feeds the aesthetic universe of the brand; e) the practices of fashion photographers adapt to the formats of social networks, mainly Instagram; f) the sale of products. The fashion show is no longer only for specialized journalists and retailers, but for the entire public. This affects brands’ sales methods, generating omnichannel strategies; g) Fashion shows are co-creation events of the brand’s universe to which an unlimited number of users contribute. Brands coexist with a culture of participation where the consumer is now a prosumer. A user not only consumes content, but also produces it. In this sense, the fashion show is open to a different kind of public participation than usual. The public records the fashion show event with their cell phones and shares it through their social networks. The fashion show expands through videos and snapshots that circulate on social networks and can be tracked by following the hashtag proposed by the brand. Moreover, according to Mafucci [21], as the parade is available online, “the viewer can stop it by extracting a segment of the file to share it. A single file can be isolated and reused as a short animation”. The official video is no longer the only perspective. This democratization multiplies, extends the face-to-face experience of the fashion show and turns it into a multidirectional communication tool that has a much wider reach. In this way, brand identity is also influenced by the circulation of this content.

The consolidation of digital technologies as communication tools transforms old routines and experiments with new possibilities. The consolidation of the online environment as a new communication space enhances the production of content according to the usual practices of each platform. Brands adopt their languages and follow the prevailing logics in these spaces. Fashion shows are no longer simply presentations of new collections, “they are global platforms where they can build their brand identity and attract new consumers” [22] directly.

In addition to the mentioned changes that the physical catwalk has experienced, there has also been an evolution, yet to be explored from the point of view of academic research, in the way fashion brands communicate their fashion shows on YouTube. One of the most evident transformations on behalf of brands is the development of transmedia products to replace the simple recording of the analogical contents of the fashion show in digital contents.

The overall objective of this research is to show that in addition to the changes that the traditional fashion show has undergone due to the influence of mediatization, other effects are emerging, such as the appearance of autonomous audiovisual productions on YouTube, characterized by a narrative expansion of the curatorial purpose of the collection. Therefore, according to this reasoning, it is born dependent on the physical show, but relying on the logics of the digital environment, it can be defined as an autonomous audiovisual product. This paper explores, based on the case of Virgil Abloh as creative director Louis Vuitton Men, these types of contents.

2 Virgil Abloh: The Presentation of the Louis Vuitton Men’s Collections on YouTube

In 2018, Virgil Abloh, a civil engineer and architect, became the first African American artistic director in charge of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections. According to Alexandre Marain (2021) [23], writer for Vogue, Abloh redefined the luxury codes of Louis Vuitton Menswear collections with his emblematic streetwear while still maintaining the house’s heritage and savoir faire. Many assert that thanks to his particular background and unique emergence in the fashion world, Abloh signified a new era for the french brand, full of jauntiness, freshness and clashing new paradigms [24]. In 2éme Étage, a documentary film that follows the making of Virgil Abloh’s first collection at Louis Vuitton Menswear, made by director BAFIC and street artist, Jim Joe, Abloh states: “The elephant in the room is that I come from a different place, into this lineage of fashion. (…) I come from this place, this place usually labeled as streetwear (…) there’s nuances from my architecture background, DJ background and art world background” [25].

His artistry was very much based upon his background, including his personal life and experiences. This is why, beyond the distinctive aesthetic elements that came along with his unconventional upbringing in the fashion field, his conception of streetwear contained a deeper narrative linked to his early life in Illinois with his ghanaian immigrant parents. Virgil Abloh embedded the cultural scope of African American culture in his work, making an effort to fight towards the democratization of luxury through the appreciation of the influence of black culture in fashion. He utilized important personalities of the black community, like Micheal Jackson as inspiration. He also incorporated new ingredients distant from the brand’s tradition: playfulness, surrealism and the helm of imagination and dreams now imbue Louis Vuitton designs through cultural allusions to other art forms such as the 1978 musical film, The Wizard of Oz, starring an all black ensemble cast.

Throughout his eight collections, both in his designs and the outline of the fashion shows, he kept both the racial and ludic aspects as key, conjoined elements that constitute a new speech for the brand; in a sense, a new brand identity now in tune with today’s world.

This brand reorientation brought along new communication strategies. Abloh began adding a theatrical dimension to his fashion shows and incorporating components to the traditional elements of catwalk. As it was customary, all fashion shows were recorded and later uploaded to the brand’s YouTube platform. One of Abloh’s biggest contributions was the full exploitation of YouTube to better develop the communication breadth of the fashion shows.

The emergence of the pandemic made traditional fashion week impossible, prompting an inevitable turn to digital. For the presentation of the Men’s Spring-Summer 2021 Men’s collection, Abloh directed the video The Adventures of Zoooom with Friends, posted on Louis Vuitton’s YouTube channel. Shot around the ancestral Paris home of the founder, the film follows movers packing up Louis Vuitton shipping containers and loading them onto a barge, which sails down the River Seine and leaves Paris. On it, a colorful crew of animated characters called ‘Zoooom with friends’ are hiding as stowaways. As Abloh explains in his show note number 5: “Zoooom with friends turned tradition on its head, painting the town and the hallowed halls of Asnières” [26].

Abloh’s concept expands the scenography; now it opens up to the city of lights, showing more clearly the intention of merging Parisian tradition and Abloh’s street style and edge. The description of the YouTube video explains: “The Men’s Artistic Director imagined a virtual and literal journey across the globe that begins at the Maison’s ancestral home in Asnières. Follow a colorful crew of animated characters tucked away as stowaways and stay tuned for the collection’s next stop in Shanghai next August at http://on.louisvuitton.com/6052GTMap” [27]. This YouTube content, thanks to the technical aspects involved in the obligation to move to a digital format, came not only as a more mature sense of storytelling, but in a fully cinematic form. This cinematic form allows the messages, concepts and new meanings that Abloh wants to convey and associate with the brand to be conveyed in a much more tangible way. In accordance with Alexander Astruc this is due to the fact that film is a “language, that is, a form in which and through which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions in exactly the same way as is currently the case with the essay or the novel” [28].

On 6 August 2020, after crossing the oceans, the shipment arrives in Shanghai and the Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2021 men’s runway show unfolds. On the same day, August 6, the YouTube brand’s channel published a three-minute video that gives continuity to the first and the narrative surrounding these characters: time travel, diversity and playfulness. This prelude sets the tone for the show and becomes an impactful statement of the ideas and intents behind the collection. On September 2, the journey continues in Tokyo, where a third show is performed, which also has its audiovisual production posted the same day on YouTube. This is a video that is specially made for on-line viewers because it is a cinematic clip with fictional contents to introduce them to the creative contents of the collection. The experience of the viewer shifts and is enhanced by the addition of the cinematic language that owns a narrative dimension as it in itself is experienced distinctly. According to Epstein [29] the effect of film is such that the human being is placed in a position where he must operate with his whole living person, while forgoing its aura. He claims the cinematic experience is corporeal, meaning that cinema is an apparatus of vision of and into the body. Meaning that cinema has a submerging effect upon its viewer.

For the presentation of the Fall-Winter 2021 collection, Abloh continues to explore the possibilities offered by the presentation of the collection on YouTube. The brand is releasing a stand-alone audiovisual production on the day of the show, in which the on-site show begins with the film Peculiar contrast, perfect light and in which the footage of the Paris show has been embedded and edited as if it were part of the film, with the addition of footage produced specifically for the viewer on this platform. In this manner, the traditional video of the fashion show, a recorded event to later be uploaded to YouTube, has now been transformed into a fully scripted, theatrical composition in which every element is rigorously formulated to convey a message, not only the curatorial speech of the collection but also the new brand identity.

Also in the spring-summer 2022 collection, Virgil Aboh uses a cinematic presentation of the collection and/or the fashion show, taking into account that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between them in the case of audiovisual production. In the spring-summer 2022 film, entitled Amen Break, the resource of a door is used to connect the fictional story with the physical fashion show. The characters enter and exit through them generating a narrative continuity, where what happens in the physical set is no longer a priority in the story.

3 Analysis of Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2021 and Spring-Summer 2022 Cinematic Shows on YouTube

The study of these two digital contents is relevant because they are the clearest expression of these experimentations that Abloh performs in order to make his creative decisions more tangible. The parallel analysis of these contents is necessary to draw complementary conclusions and therefore, determine a wholesome view of the matter. Table 1 below shows the data relating to the two videos analyzed.

Table 1. Technical information for Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Fall-Winter 2021 and Spring-Summer 2022 YouTube videos
Full size table

Strange Contrast, Perfect Light is an adaptation of Stranger in the Village by African-American novelist James Baldwing, in which he creates an allegory about the racism he experienced as the only black man in the small Swiss town of Leukerbad in the 1950s and his life as an African-American in the United States. With this prompt, Abloh’s intention is to depict the challenges that come along being an African American artist, as it is explained in Abloh’s show note number 6: “Stranger in the Village also illuminates the experience of being Black in Europe, and being a Black artist in the birthplace of European art”. Abloh makes use of the narrative as a resource to express the collection’s curatorial speech: “Tourist vs. Purist: society’s established structure of outsiders vs. insiders, manifested in broad civilization as well as individual domains of knowledge such as the arts” [26].

The film begins with Yasiin Bey looming in between the snow-covered Swiss mountains and reciting verses: “In this white wilderness the construct of purity is sullied with every step. The evidence I carry, the hidden sun in every breath. My blacker self whose whiter death is luxury. I’m no stranger anymore. The world is love to me. The snow will melt, the ice will fall and make it up to me”. He’s a foreigner, a visitor who foresees he will no longer be alienated from his context. The story told by Baldwing is now charged with a new meaning. Under the lens of Abloh’s speech, it is now a “demonstration of the themes of artistic provenance and ownership studied within the collection, expressed in the figurative idea of a heist: the established art world’s re-appropriation of foundations of cultural heritages different to their own” [26]. The outsider now dominates the esoteric art form traditionally mastered by the insider.

On the other hand, Amen Break, named after the drum break that served as a foundation for Hip-hop and electronic music genres like jungle and drum ‘n’ bass, serves as a metaphor that intends to represent one of the most groundbreaking moments for black art and culture. The film is an ‘abstract interpretation’ as Abloh calls it, of the story of Lupe Fiasco, an American rapper. His story is branded by his childhood, as he grew up in the Southside of Chicago in the 70s and 80s, amidst the black and hispanic gang expansion. His father, Gregory Jaco, an activist, former member of the Black Panther Party, offered youngsters martial arts classes as an alternative to gangs. According to Abloh, he was “a local legend, his work in the community served to neutralize archetypical preconceptions and open a gateway of opportunity previously obscure” [26].

As detailed in the show note 7 from the Spring-Summer 2022 men’s collection, the story goes about a father and a son “united by an unnamed loss, crossing a dream world to deliver a message to the other side. Along the way, adversaries conspire against the child, heroes emerge to guide him, and great sacrifices are made to get him across the divide. The film observes life’s supporting figures: those who embark on long journeys to make the passage less difficult for those who follow; who fight the battles for the future of others, break the boundaries, and dismantle archetypical notions” [30].

The video begins with the voiceover of a kid telling us his story: “When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest samurai in the empire (…) he cut off the heads of 131 lords, it was a bad time for the empire. The shogun stayed inside his castle and never came out, people said his brain was infected by doubts. He was scared of the shogun but the shogun was scared of him. That was the problem. Then, one night, the shogun sent his ninja spies to our house. They were supposed to kill my father, but they didn’t. That was the night everything changed”.

Everything has changed after this savior figure of a father came along. Everything changed after one person drew the line and disrupted the social constructs. Within such an interpretation of Fiasco’s story and the narrative of the film, there’s an evident message beneath: a metaphor to Abloh’s intent as a creative director for Louis Vuitton, and his specific intent with this collection, the dismantling of archetypes in fashion and creating a path for opportunity.

Unlike the traditional fashion show, in both Amen break and Peculiar contrast, Perfect light, this content has a more obvious sense of storytelling. In both cases, the narrative functions as a parable, enhancing the curatorial discourse and the designer’s intention with the collection. Telling a story makes communicating the meanings behind a collection much easier. In addition, one of Abloh’s great hallmarks has been the use of words to support the meanings of his collections, for example through the use of glossaries with definitions in his show notes. It is also seen in the storytelling of these digital contents, specifically in his use of narrators.

Another distinction of the live fashion show is the broadening of the audience’s point of view. This can be evidenced with the different locations of Peculiar contrast, Perfect light, as it takes place on two settings: the Swiss mountains and a set in Paris decorated with green marble that symbolizes the fluctuating emotions of the ‘stranger in the village’. Yasiin Bey concludes his performance by leaving his silver suitcase on the floor. The rap ceases and flute starts to sing in the background. One of the models begins performing a dance in the marble set in between the rest of models, who remain still. Suddenly, the image cuts to a hand held zenithal shot of the performer dancing in the middle of the snowed mountains, then, back to him dancing on set. The spectators are transported back and forth in between locations to show how the character, ‘the stranger’, is still alienated in both scenarios, just like the parallelism Baldwing utilizes in his novel. In Abloh’s words: “The performance embodies the physical confrontations with the psychological conflicts explored in Baldwin’s essay” [31].

It is important to remark that, before being used as a tool to add meaning and nurture the narrative itself, it is a way in which the digital expands the audience’s experience and point of view. In this sense, in a live show, the viewers experience a single scenario. The audiovisual content and its montage allow them to experience different scenarios at the same time, in a single show. The montage and the union of different sequences, in different places, with different points of view, allow them to broaden our own perspective, which ceases to be linear and limited.

Along the same line, given that digital techniques allow the manipulation of reality perception, taking this case study as a base, another characteristic is the hybridisation between reality and iconic elements belonging to the brand’s universe that bring along new aggregated meaning to the brand.

In Amen break, as it was mentioned above, the story is about a father and a son that cross a dream world to deliver a message to the other side. Considering this, the film shows the two characters, in cowboy-like assemblage, in the middle of deserted mountains, disappearing into thin air as they cross an archway. However, it is not just only a random arc, but an iconic doorway that Abloh has been using since the Heaven on Earth Fall-winter 2020 collection, when his shows began with the arc. It is an element that the designer made an effort to iconize as one of the brand’s symbols, and in this film, he does so by not only using it as a diegetic device but also by doing so, he adds meanings to it, symbolizing it as the archway to opportunities, the door you have to cross to dilute preconceived ideas.

Furthermore, both cases are independent contents apart from the collection’s live fashion show. Beyond being the dissemination vessel of a fashion show, these contents have become autonomous. As a result, this is a process of democratization on behalf of the brand, since it offers a product by itself, free of charge with open availability to everyone who has access to the internet. It is an attempt to bring the younger generations closer, not so much for the purchase of a product, but the experience the brand offers through YouTube.

4 Conclusions

The way in which Abloh presents his collections in YouTube has opened the possibilities of the emergence of a new format due to its innovative nature in relation to retransmissions of fashion shows and the archive purpose in which the platform was used before. This is because Abloh generated an autonomous audiovisual product to present his collections.

This kind of Youtube content has a number of defining characteristics; first, there’s a more palpable storytelling, because the show is driven by action and character, it has something of a cinematic approach. Such storytelling allows the curatorial speech to emerge more clearly into the show, it enhances the impact of the curatorial speech. Additionally, the point of view, the perception of the viewer, elongates within the experience of the cinematic expression of these contents. This is because, as opposed to the mere retransmission of the live show, through the editing and scripting of the footage, the viewer is now able to “travel” with it; he’s no longer tied to the physical location of the show, but is as malleable and free as the narrative allows. Furthermore, these fashion shows allow for a better communication of not only the curatorial speech of a given collection, but also the identity of the brand. This is a consequence of the fusion of brand elements and reality thanks to technical tools such as the editing of the footage.

As a result, Virgil Aboh’s cinematic presentation of the collection and/or the fashion shows on Youtube are a brand product in itself, free and accessible for everyone, that offers a genuine brand experience. That Abloh’s deviceful manner to display his collections for the digital audiences might be the beginning of a new format, the cinematic fashion show, that it is yet to be determined if the brand and competitors will follow or not. In Andrezj Lesniak’s words, “Abloh’s design strategies as an effective introduction of relative novelty production processes into the realm of fashion” [32].