This past weekend, I watched the complete Disney+ series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld. I justified my binging by saying I was on assignment for Vogue Runway. I was supposed to watch the show and see if there was anything worth writing home about, sorry, on the internet. I had many fashion opinions, but the final episode, in which a youthful and rapidly climbing Thierry Mugler appears, offered me the most to ponder.
According to the story, Pierre Bergé, who presided over the Chambre Syndicale du prêt-à-porter (which he created in the 1970s to unite couturiers and ready-to-wear designers under one organization), had something to say about the runway extravaganzas Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier, as well as their rising class of fellow designers, were putting on. “The clothes should be the spectacle,” he admonished them. But Mugler and al. Persisted; eventually, the tide swung in their favor, and fashion moved away from haute salons and small displays.
We are in a similar scenario today. Macro presentations have once again become the norm. Each season, the shows become more prominent and louder. But the June exhibitions in Paris, a menswear and couture double bill, confirmed what had been rumored for some time: the pendulum is swinging. Brazenly striving for attention is out of style.
A recent X (previously Twitter) tweet summarized this: “Posting on Instagram feels so cringe now.” I assumed that the internet was the cause of this transformation. We have grown self-conscious. This instrument has given fashion and its creators and promoters access and publicity and has also provided bystanders with abundant knowledge. Now, they can look right through us. They know too much, and we are withdrawing as a result.
Daniel Roseberry changed the location of his autumn 2024 couture show this season. He relocated from the grandeur of the Petit Palais to the intimacy of the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild basement for a smaller exhibition. Roseberry told my editor Nicole Phelps for Vogue Runway that he wants to leave his reputation as a “meme-weaver” behind. He has, after all, created some of the most memorable couture of the last decade in just a few seasons. Remember the viral heads of animals and robo-babies?
Being overexposed online has both advantages and disadvantages. The work may be famous and well-accepted, but it may easily be reduced to that. Virality. It’s a TikTok or two and a humorous meme. This comes with a level of anxiousness.
Fashion is pop culture, but it can also be quite severe — and self-serious — and being the target of a joke is not always desirable. “The risk for me here is that there’s nothing meant to break the internet,” Roseberry stated backstage. “I think that was an angle that we played to lift the visibility of the house, and I think we’re shifting gears, I’m shifting gears.”
Roseberry is a brilliant designer. He is good with journalists and clearly understands how his work is received and discussed. If there is any internet-induced self-consciousness in this transition, it is mitigated by an intuitive and well-timed temperature check. There is a fine line between popularity and overexposure.
Last week, I was talking about Berlin Fashion Week with my Vogue colleague Mark Holgate, who covered the presentations for Vogue Runway. He pointed out that these designers appeared to be more free-spirited than their peers in New York and Paris. I attribute some of this perspective to the novelty of covering a new environment but also to the fact that designers outside of the four primary weeks — New York, London, Milan, and Paris — tend to be less self-conscious when it comes to how they’re seen or even how hard they try to be seen.
I also observed this when I covered shows in Shanghai. The work is less visible on our preferred social channels and media, and designers are more self-aware, making them less concerned with online reactions. If anything, they’re actively pursuing them. Consider the humorous phrases at Namilia in Berlin or Mark Gong’s runway exploits in Shanghai.
“Self-consciousness is an interesting way to put it because I tend to think more about attention,” remarked critic Rachel Tashjian, fashion writer for The Washington Post, over the phone earlier this week. She first referred to Rosebery as a “meme-weaver” in a previous headline on his work.
Tashjian also mentioned that designers frequently sought attention during these peripheral fashion weeks with their shows, which we’ve learned to accept and now see right through. “I wonder if that’s made designers feel a little bit awkward about doing that,” she says, “because now so many people are thinking about it that it’s obvious when a designer or a brand has decided to stage a show around creating some kind of viral moment or being a sort of personality on social media.”
This relates to more than just designers and brands. I’ve seen that several of my influencer friends have begun to be more self-deprecating, either in tandem with their own — often sponsored — material or by dividing personalities between Instagram (manicured, curated) and TikTok (off the cuff, playful).
When I asked one of them about it, they responded that maybe counterintuitively, poking fun at oneself supports the sponsorship and the self-seriousness of “influencing .” It’s as if me knowing that it can be or look silly makes it less silly,” stated one of them. Being aware of the joke protects them from becoming it.
The emergence of lo-fi TikTok-style content has made Instagram appear a little overdone, which is why I see fewer and fewer of my friends posting there — or I see them uploading as “unstudied” as possible (ever heard of a photo dump?). But now we’re getting into the TikTok of it all. We know that street ‘fit inspections come with many outtakes, making them wince unless you embrace them.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and in fashion, we tend to overexpose ourselves with something to the point that our only alternative is to flee in the opposite direction. “We have this tendency in fashion to think ‘internet big, so internet bad,'” Tashjian said.
“When I came up with that headline, I thought that Daniel Roseberry’s clothing is more in conversation with the internet or about internet culture than it is cynically exploiting the way that the internet works.” anything doesn’t make anything excellent or awful; it just makes it current, which is what defines good fashion. And as the moment changes, designers must adapt.
“The glory should be the clothes,” Roseberry told reporters backstage at his event. Bergé preached to many aspiring designers, akin to what Becoming Karl Lagerfeld imagines. The pendulum swings once more.
The Impact Of Online Shopping And Personalization
- Customized Recommendations: Online shopping sites frequently utilize algorithms to provide personalized fashion options based on browsing history and interests. This customization can lead to a more self-conscious approach to shopping as people become more aware of how their choices are tracked and affected.
- Self-Presentation: The internet has heightened the importance of personal branding and self-presentation. Users are becoming more aware of how their fashion choices shape their online persona, resulting in a more purposeful and self-conscious approach to style.
The Debate On Authenticity And Image
- Curated Content: The curated nature of online fashion content can lead to a disconnect between genuine personal style and the image displayed on social media. As people try to balance authentic expression and managed online personas, they may become more self-conscious about their wardrobe choices.
- Pressure to adhere: The visibility of trends and the influence of social media can create pressure to adhere to specific styles or standards. This pressure can lead to a more self-conscious attitude, forcing people to conform their dress choices to widespread online expectations.
In conclusion, the internet has made fashion more self-conscious, influencing how trends are viewed, how fashion is displayed, and how people present themselves online. While the internet age has provided unprecedented opportunities for creativity and connection, it has also brought new levels of scrutiny and pressure. As fashion evolves in the digital age, the challenge will be finding a balance between self-expression and the effects of a more connected and self-conscious world.
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