What do Peaches Geldof, Jessica Alba and Jamie Hince have in common? They’ve all been spotted in the front row at Paris – and that’s only a few days into Fashion Week. Don’t even try to count the celebs who’ve perched front and centre during Milan and London. Trying to list the VIPs at Burberry alone would probably take an hour.
These days, the front row is getting a little crowded: designers used to have to sit editors, retailers, Very Important Customers (i.e. ones who think nothing of pre-ordering the whole collection after seeing it once) and “friends of the brand”. That used to mean It Girls who lived and breathed the brand lifestyle – think Chloe Sevigny at Miu Miu. Nowadays, it means any star who can drum up column inches for the show. Even if you wouldn’t believe in a million years that the celeb in question has any interest whatsoever in fashion. Gerard Butler at Hugo Boss, I’m looking at you.
‘If you can get big names seated on your front row, you're likely to get a hell of a lot more coverage for your show. Designers are aware of that,’ says Millie Cotton, the fashion blogger behind It’s a LDN Thing.
To be fair, how else can designers score attention in a celeb-obsessed world? But in some cases, A-listers can overshadow the show. When I try and remember what was in the Burberry show, all I remember is a) Bradley Cooper turned up, and b) so did Harry Styles. Last season, Tommy Hilfiger and Oscar de la Renta limited their guestlists for that very reason – as de la Renta put it, he wanted people who had an actual reason to be there, not ‘20 million people with zero connection to the clothes.’
‘It is sad though that there are a few publications that will write about a show because of stellar celebrity front row, rather than a great collection,’ Cotton says. And when celebrities crash and burn in the time it takes for a runway collection to hit the shops, that can be bad for the brand, too – pretty sure that Y-3 and Opening Ceremony aren’t exactly pleased to be associated with ex-front row guest Justin Bieber now he’s embarked on a very un-chic downward spiral.
The real solution? Make the clothes good – no, great – enough to outshine any celeb-associated drama. Katy Perry got booed at Moschino when she turned up almost an hour late. It could have tarnished the atmosphere of the whole show, but thankfully everyone forgot about it once those amazing Happy Meal jumpers came down the runway. We’ll take clever design and McDonald’s puns over another nondescript celebrity any day, thanks.
Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.