Viktor and Rolf's Tongue-In-Chic 2019 Couture Show
Couture Week has been predictably fabulous, but Viktor and Rolf have taken the “fashion as art” platform to a viral level this year. Their Spring 2019 Couture collection consists of large, period piece-esque layered tulle gowns with the notable addition of colorful phrases straight out of social media captions.
Co-creator Rolf Snoren said on the collection’s statements, “It’s the kind of message you find on social media, with the same instant feeling… All these statements that are so obvious or easy—there’s a lot of banality on Instagram and social media in general—are counterbalanced with this over-the-top, shimmery, romantic feeling.”
The fashion world has spent the majority of the 2010’s reckoning with the new world order of social media culture, putting collections up on Instagram and jumping on the social media influencer wave to promote luxury to the average consumer. Viktor and Rolf savvily sought to invert the Internet meme cycle, connecting with the social media generation by meme-ifying their own garments for the runway and subsequently turning the show into a very successful bit of advertising for the brand.
No matter how ahead of the Internet a brand gets, memeification by the masses is an unavoidable part of the social media life cycle. And why would fashion houses want to avoid it? Viktor and Rolf’s collection has gone viral and overshadowed many of the more traditional collections debuting at Paris Couture Week.
At the end of the day, couture is a market for only a handful of one percent-er’s in the world, and the more that brands realize the largely exclusive function of couture shows can double as marketing opportunities, the better off they’ll be with the new Insta-generation of consumers.
8,604 Likes, 223 Comments - Luke Meagher (@hautelemode) on Instagram: "the horoscopes . . . but make it memeable fashion (by @noahsilverstein)"
Check out the whole collection here:
