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Annie Brown

Alexandre de Betak is feeling optimistic.
One could attribute this to him selling a majority stake in Bureau Betak, the world- leading fashion events production business he started in 1990, to The Independents Group – a powerhouse collective that includes the influential luxury communications agency Karla Otto.
Bureau Betak has offices all around the world, including Shanghai, and is responsible for some of the world’s most talked-about (and Instagrammed) fashion events. Think that hot pink runway in a lavender field for Jacquemus and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent’s light-beamed show under the Eiffel Tower (and the pouring rain).
In fact, de Betak is looking on the bright side because he thinks fashion is at a critical, essential and exciting juncture. The global coronavirus pandemic, he says, accelerated changes that were already happening, or needed to happen, in an industry he believes required a reboot.

“I’m an optimistic and hopeful person,” he says on a video call from his office in Paris. “So I want to believe that the pandemic should help if anything …
“[Before] Covid-19, we were already working towards quite revolutionary changes in the way we do what we do. I strongly believe that the pandemic should help us not only continue, but even speed up what we’ve started. I think it’s speeding up people’s minds and the people’s wishes for bigger, faster change,” he says.
‘Incredibly uncreative’: Loewe designer on digital fashion shows
“I’ve always advocated the fact that we need to break old rules and start from scratch, and that the world of fashion is tired of itself.”
How is it changing? De Betak says brands have realised they don’t need to do a runway show (a fiscally and emotionally taxing enterprise) all the time or in the same way. A year-and-a-half with barely any travel for an industry once always on the move has shown that not everybody needs to be physically present.
The fashion hierarchy has changed anyway – with many a vacated front row seat thanks to major shake-ups at top publications. The conversations around sustainability and social impact, highlighted by the pandemic, he says, are of particular importance.
“Ironically, we announced just at the beginning of lockdown … our ISO 20121 certification, which makes us the first agency in the world of luxury to be certified for eco-responsible event production.
“We are becoming a B Corp soon [the highest level of sustainability and ethical practice accreditation], but we’re also working on the publication of an open-source, worldwide, public, eco-responsible manifesto [where we] share … resources about how we work and how to do what we do more responsibly,” he says.

Bureau Betak’s partnership with The Independents, says de Betak, means accelerating this vision, with capacity to expand further in markets such as Asia, and especially China, with the right sensitivity, knowledge and expertise.
What de Betak dubs the “transmission of culture” – the way fashion provides a prism through which to see the world – is of course amplified by social media, and de Betak says how we view that is changing too.
That social media allows a show staged anywhere – from Dior’s cruise 2022 show set in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens in Greece to Jacquemus’ wheat field outside Paris for spring/summer 2022 – to be beamed around the world means we can be both global and hyper local. But de Betak doesn’t believe digital will ever render physical events redundant.

“The pandemic has confirmed what I always thought – to do the best digital content you need a physical emotion, and for a physical emotion you need a physical event that comes with a physical human doing something in the event and another human watching it,” says de Betak, who adds that creating digital shows without an audience throughout the pandemic was a somewhat strange and disconnecting experience.
Natalie Xenita, vice-president and managing director of IMG Fashion Asia-Pacific, the company behind fashion weeks in Asia-Pacific and New York, agrees that fashion weeks were due for a shake-up. She says that people expect more – not just from fashion week and events, but the fashion industry as a whole.
This year’s fashion weeks, she says, have repositioned themselves in terms of scheduling and who shows and how, but also consumer involvement (fashion weeks have typically been industry-only) and their social impact.

“A key part of fashion week’s repositioning has been in freeing designers to present their collections in new ways to engage their customers, new audiences and to create content for consumption – be that via a runway show, see-now-buy-now collection, virtual runway or non-traditional formats like parties or dinners,” she says.
Look to the almost even split at London Fashion Week in September for proof. Highlights included Halpern’s video featuring Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers wearing his vivid spring/summer 22 collection and Erdem Moralioglu celebrating the 15th anniversary of his English brand with a runway show at the British Museum (capped off with a much Instagrammed double rainbow).
Then there was Prada, live-streaming its spring/summer 2022 collection from Milan and Shanghai.
This sense of amplifying a special local (live) experience was felt at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week back in May too (just before parts of the country went back into lockdown).




















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At the luxury menswear label Commas’ show, held at sunrise on Sydney’s Tamarama beach, the fashion crowd watched models wade through the water in beautiful silk shirts and shorts as the sky turned orange and pink. It looked almost as beguiling on social media, too.
For Commas creative director Richard Jarman, who takes much inspiration from the ocean, it was important to capture the “context” of the brand and translate this energy for the digital capture. That said, he doesn’t see the runway show going anywhere yet either.
“I believe that both physical and digital shows can coexist, but I do think there is something special that happens with a physical show when you bring your community together and allow people to experience your brand. There is a compelling energy and a rawness to a physical show.
“Much like concerts, they sound amazing when you watch the recording but it’s a very different experience to being there and witnessing it for yourself,” he says.
Creating an experience beyond merely seeing new products we probably don’t need is something de Betak notes is applicable to other industries too. And he says it challenges fashion to be more creative in what it does.

“To get people … to want to physically go somewhere, whether it’s a store or anything, we need to add more experience to the experience,” he says. “We need to add more creativity to the experience, more exclusivity to the experience, to give them a reason. Which means there needs to be more things you could only have done had you [been] there.”
Ultimately, as Xenita puts it: “2020 provided somewhat of a watershed moment for the entire industry. Many took the opportunity to think about how they move forward in our new world order – fashion for fashion’s sake just wasn’t enough any more.
“It’s fashion’s responsibility to inspire social change, whether it be in representation, environmental, political or otherwise.”


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Vintage New York subway carriages return for outing, and passengers dress appropriately

Who is Chance the Rapper’s newly minted ex, Kirsten Corley? The influencer and entrepreneur – whose wedding was attended by Kanye West and Kim Kardashian – has worked with brands like Jordan

Fashion

Fashion is changing thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, starting with fashion weeks – expect catwalk shows tailored for social media and an emphasis on experiences

Fashion industry insiders such as Alexandre de Betak, responsible for some of the most high-octane fashion events in recent years, such as the Jacquemus spring/summer 2020 show pictured, believe fashion has to change after the pandemic. Photo: Getty Images

Alexandre de Betak thinks fashion is at a critical, essential and exciting juncture.

Bureau Betak’s catwalk by the Eiffel Tower for the Yves Saint Laurent spring/summer 2018 show. Photo: Getty Images

Jacquemus 10th anniversary show in 2019. Photo: Getty Images

A ballet performance for the Halpern spring/summer 2022 show.

The Prada spring/summer 2022 show was held simultaneously in Milan and Shanghai.

New York Fashion Week 2021: Christian Siriano presented style as an escape with bold, colourful looks in his spring/summer 2022 live show – plus a performance by pop songstress Marina

A model presents a creation from the Christian Siriano spring 2022 collection during New York Fashion Week, in New York, on September 7. Photo: AFP

A model presents a creation from the Christian Siriano spring/summer 2022 collection during New York Fashion Week at Gotham Hall in Manhattan, New York City, on September 7. Photo: Reuters

Canadian model Coco Rocha is interviewed before taking a seat to view the Christian Siriano fashion show, during New York Fashion Week, on September 7, in New York. Photo: AP Photo

The latest fashion from Christian Siriano is modelled during New York Fashion Week, on September 7, in New York. Photo: AP Photo

The latest fashion from Christian Siriano is modelled during New York Fashion Week, on September 7. Photo: AP Photo

Models present creations from Christian Siriano’s spring 2022 collection during New York Fashion Week in New York, on September 7. Photo: AFP

The latest fashion from Christian Siriano is modelled during New York Fashion Week on September 7. Photo: AP Photo

Designer Christian Siriano comes on stage after presenting his spring 2022 collection during New York Fashion Week in New York, on September 7. Photo: AFP

CEO of Louis Vuitton willing to trade growth for sustainability in the short term; sees fashion as pivotal to cultural exchange between China and the world

From left: LVMH owner Bernard Arnault, designer Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke in Paris in 2018. We talk to Burke about LV’s future and the role China and Hong Kong play in that. Photo: Getty Images

Burke at a Paris Fashion Week show in Paris in 2018. Burke is today focusing on making Louis Vuitton sustainable. Photo: Getty Images

The LV Trainer Upcycling collection is part of a sustainable upcycling strategy aiming to optimise the use of existing materials.

A Louis Vuitton Keepall bag made with recycled nylon.

The Felt line from Louis Vuitton features bags designed using several eco-responsible materials.

Burke says the brand has the ambitious goal of cutting carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. Photo: Jean-François Robert

Louis Vuitton boots made with recycled nylon.

In August 2020, Louis Vuitton hosted its spring/summer 2021 menswear show in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images

Burke was responsible for the Fendi show on the Great Wall of China 14 years ago. Photo: Reuters

What happened to United Colors of Benetton? How Zara, H&M and Uniqlo stole its thunder

A Benetton poster from 1990. The Italian retailer, once hugely successful, has been supplanted by other brands. Now, the posters are the thing many people remember about it.

A United Colors of Benetton store in Galeria Krakowska, a shopping centre in Krakow, Poland. Photo: Shutterstock

A recent campaign from Benetton.

A Benetton poster showing pope Benedict XVI kissing Egypt’s Ahmed el Tayeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. Photo: AFP

A Benetton advertising campaign in 1996 of the “Benetton family” wearing straitjackets. Photo: AP

Death row inmate Jerome Mallett in a Benetton poster in 2000. Photo: AP

Dopamine dressing is here post-pandemic, in vivid reds, greens, purples and yellows – colours of optimism. How to wear these saturated hues? Go all in

Brightly coloured looks from the Valentino autumn/winter 2021 couture collection. 

Looks from Valentino’s autumn/winter 2021 collection. This season’s fashion collections are full of bright hues, marking a move away from the pandemic’s neutrals.

A look from Valentino’s autumn/winter 2021 collection.

A look from Versace’s autumn/winter 2021 collection.

A look from Jacquemus’ autumn/winter 2021 collection.

New York designer Christopher John Rogers has become known for his bold use of vivid colour. 

Colourful looks from Valentino’s autumn/winter 2021 collection.

Another look from Valentino’s autumn/winter 2021 collection.

An Amina Muaddi shoe, available at Lane Crawford, offers a pop of colour.

The cautious or the monochrome-minded may opt for a pop of colour in the shape of a bright green pouch from Bottega Veneta.

A dress by Jacquemus, available at Net-a-Porter.

Lifestyle

Fashion & Beauty


Alexandre de Betak, responsible for some of the world’s most talked-about fashion events, believes the pandemic is changing the industry – for the better
Although social media allows for catwalk shows anywhere, he and others believe physical events with physical audiences will continue – but they must offer more



What’s the future of fashion weeks? Can labels keep putting on catwalk shows and expect everyone to come? Not after the coronavirus pandemic. They need to offer experiences, and harness social media.


Paris Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week

London Fashion Week