For many years every time fashion week comes around everyone knows who is sitting in the front row but are they there for the right reasons? It has been discovered that the dirty little secret of the fashion world is that these people and celebrities are being paid substantial amounts of money or other favours to sit in the front row. Although many do go and support designers for free this is the right way. Is it fair that a designer can receive media coverage just because of the people in attendance not the collections on display? I think not as there are many talented designers out there but do not have pockets full of money to pay people to attend their fashion show. It may not be the designers decision who is on front row but those of publicity and PR teams.
Katy Perry in attendance at Paris Fashion Week, can you remember what shows she attended?
Jeff Banks an British Designer is all for the paying of people sitting on the front row “These days, hiring celebrities is an integral part of the big labels’ marketing strategies. Whether they’re wearing your clothes on the red carpet or sitting on the front row at your show, the effect is the same. It’s expensive, but some labels will consider it money well spent…And if you’re going to pay Charlize Theron £1.3 million to advertise perfume, why not apply the same logic to getting coverage for your fashion shows?”, read here for more. Surely there is a differentiation between advertising and supporting maybe designers need to be educated on the value of earned media, it may save them a few quid as well.
I feel like they do over use celebrities on their front rows too. They have become more about which famous face is there when it should be about the clothes. It seems as if every season there is a different IT girl and this year in Paris it was Katy Perry. What this fashion reject has anything to do with couture is beyond me, but her wandering round Paris with her god awful roots was offensive.
ReplyDeleteIt has been discovered that the dirty little secret of the fashion world is that these people and celebrities are being paid substantial amounts of money or other favours to sit in the front row.
ReplyDeleteMedia Monitoring