Explore how fashion shows transformed from sales presentations into billion-dollar performance art spectacles. Discover the art, business, and viral power behind runways from Chanel to Coperni.
Explore how fashion shows transformed from sales presentations into billion-dollar performance art spectacles. Discover the art, business, and viral power behind runways from Chanel to Coperni.
October 23, 2025
Explore how fashion shows transformed from sales presentations into billion-dollar performance art spectacles. Discover the art, business, and viral power behind runways from Chanel to Coperni.
A morning in March 2017 at the Grand Palais, Paris. The air was tense as a drawn bowstring. Then, the roar of an engine filled the space, and spotlights illuminated the 35-meter-high body of a rocket bearing the familiar Chanel logo. In the moment the rocket "lifted off" amidst white smoke, the legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld was not merely presenting a Fall/Winter collection-he was transporting the entire audience into a dream of conquest. This was no longer a fashion show. It was a cultural event, a multi-sensory artistic performance where the audience paid with their emotions, not with a ticket.
The journey of the fashion show from a static 19th-century sales presentation to today's multi-billion-dollar dramatic spectacles is a story of spectacular metamorphosis. It reflects a profound truth: fashion has completely shed its old definition of fabrics and seams to step onto the stage of contemporary performance art, where each collection is a play, and each runway is a universe of concepts.
If the 2000s witnessed iconic theatrical storytelling-like Marc Jacobs' haunting "mental hospital" show (Fall 2007) or Hussein Chalayan's technological performance with a shape-shifting dress (Spring 2007)-recent years have seen the perfect fusion of fashion with other art forms.
Consider Maria Grazia Chiuri's Dior Fall 2023, where the entire runway was covered by a gigantic tapestry created by installation artist Joana Vasconcelos, transforming the presentation into a moving installation artwork. Or Jonathan Anderson's Loewe, which constantly morphs clothing into surreal sculptures: from toilet-shaped shoes to a coat transforming into a mobile phone in the Spring/Summer 2023 show. These collections do not sell many of the exact designs seen on the runway-in fact, up to 20% of samples on haute couture runways will never be produced. But they sell something more valuable: the DNA of creativity, and the power of narrative.
But behind the halo of these artistic dreams lies a machine operated with astonishing precision and strategy. While a major show could cost around £100,000 over a decade ago, today that figure has multiplied tenfold, even a hundredfold. An average show for a major house easily surpasses $1-2 million USD, while elaborately staged productions like Chanel's "art gallery" or Gucci's "theatre stage" can consume tens of millions of dollars.
This staggering investment is no accident. It is the answer to a key question of the digital age: How do you create a "moment" powerful enough to cut through every news feed, beautiful enough for millions to "save" and "share"? The fashion show has become the most powerful content-producing machine-content that is alive, emotional, and perfectly shareable. The moment Bella Hadid cried on the Coperni runway (Spring 2023) as a dress was sprayed onto her body, or Balenciaga's ballet performance in a mud pit (Fall 2022), were not just for a few hundred guests. They were designed to shine on the smartphone screens of tens of millions.
It is precisely these meticulously crafted stories and emotions that make consumers' hearts beat faster and open their wallets. When someone buys a Chanel Classic Flap bag, they are not just buying a handcrafted leather good. They are buying a fragment of the dream of cosmic luxury that Lagerfeld created in 2017. When a fashion enthusiast owns a dress from the Resort collection-typically presented discreetly in January and June, without grand stages or dramatic pyrotechnics-they still feel the breath of the extraordinary stories told during the main RTW shows.
These "quiet" collections, with their wearable designs and longer shelf life, are the real "money-making machines," contributing up to 70-80% of revenue. And they are powerfully fueled by the energy from the million-dollar runways, as well as by the presence of stars in the front row-a tactic Jacquemus has mastered, turning his shows into an unmissable "celebrity rendezvous."
As one critic noted, the contemporary fashion show is like "the harvest ritual of luxury consumerism." It is where legend is born, value is consecrated, and desire is ignited.
So, the next time you are mesmerized by a captivating show video, remember: you are not just watching clothes. You are witnessing a masterpiece of performance art, a complex financial equation, and above all, a story told in the language of beauty-the most powerful language to touch hearts and open wallets.
Because in today’s fashion landscape, clothing is no longer the final product. Performance art has transformed the runway into an emotional stage where stories, identities, and desires are performed before they are worn. Each show becomes a promise, not just of beauty, but of meaning-written season after season, where fashion and dreams continue to meet.
