Saturday, October 6, 2012

Who deserves to sit front row and who doesn`t?

The spring/summer 2013 shows are over and we have seen plenty of star-studded front rows. Jennifer Lopez sat front row at Chanel with her boyfriend (and four-year-old child), Sharon Stone sat front row at Just Cavalli with her boyfriend and so did Liz Hurley at Roberto Cavalli. Discussing front rows, my friend Yves brought up the question: What is a "fashion relevant" celebrity? How do you determine if a celeb is relevant or not? I find his question so important that it needs to be answered in detail.

A “fashion relevant” celebrity is one, that is considered a style icon by the general public, not just by their fans. Think Daphne Guinness, Gwen Stefani or Lady Gaga. No matter what we think of their work or whether we like their style, or not, we all agree, that they are style icons.

Sitting front row should be a privilege of people who worked hard on their careers and “fashion relevance”. This precious space shouldn`t be wasted to the people they currently sleep with. If it is a serious, long-term relation-ship and the partner has supported their career over years, ok, maybe. But bringing their 25-years-younger “trophys / toys” is just embarrassing!
The funny thing about that is, that some celebs are allowed to bring their bedmates while others are not. JLO brought Casper and tried to paint a “happy, pretty family” picture, while Kanye West obviously had to leave his sextape-girlfriend at home. THANK KARL for that! I will publicly burn my Chanel bag if Kim K ever gets to sit in their front row!

So, who should sit front row?
  • Fashion Editors-in-Chief – they are the real taste-makers and fashion-influencers. Their opinion matters (yes, popstarts read Vogue too!).
  • The CEOs & owners of the brand
  • Fashion-relevant celebrities; singers, actresses & artists, who are considered style icons, as well as It girls, (stylish) models & royals.
Concerning the so-called It girls, sure, the “talent” or “importance to the world” of women like Kate Bosworth, Olivia Palermo or Alexa Chung may be arguable, but come on, we all love to look at their flawless beauty and style. They love fashion, appear in high fashion editorials and advertise brands. They behave decent, they work (well, somehow) and give us, regular women, the illusion that “if only we worked a little harder, we could be there, too”, so let them be there.

Ideally, front row seats should be allocated like this:
ideal front row

People I don`t want to see front row are:
  • Nouveaux riches. There is nothing wrong with getting rich fast, marrying rich or being a millionare`s child but it shouldn`t be shown off to the level of obscenity. They have the biggest budget for “fashion crimes”, so many of them are deterrent examples of the old “Money can buy fashion, but it can`t buy style.” wisdom.
  • Tabloid D-listers & others who are rather notorious than “famous”
  • As elaborated above, celebrity “trophy/toy”-boy-/girlfriends

What`s your take on it? Who sits in your ideal front row and who does not?

8 comments:

  1. This was so fun to read! I have one thought about fashion editors and editors-in-chief though. There are many, many young and great magazines. In some countries more, in other less. It is just impossible to create the ideal plan for the seats!..

    Personally, in Milan I am happy to get the first row or at least not a standing place in a bigger show (those heels are killing..), my magazine is not some huge empire next to old and respected ones like Vogue etc. And funny, but in my own country I used to get standing (sitting on stairs) accreditations in one of the main fashion events for a long time. I am not going there this year, I guess.

    So it basically even depends on the look and attitude towards press and influential bloggers!

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  2. Wow! I just learned about this now from you. Hehe. Great! Though I wish I can get that chance to sit in the front row one day.:)


    ~Chai
    http://chenmeicai.blogspot.com
    http://lookbook.nu/chenmeicai
    http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/2957855

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  3. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Unfortunately the ones you don't want to see in the front row (or at least the nouveaux riches) are usually the ones that buy a lot of the stuff presented on the runway, so they are very relevant to the designers and labels (maybe even more relevant than it-girls, royals and models). So "relevance" is kinda subjective and depends on your point of view and is probably why we see so many disagreeable people in the front rows.

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  4. I don't know who should be in the front row, though it seems fairly obvious that the fashion editors need to be able to see the collections. Still that front row is so photographed itself I'm sure the design houses want to get as much out of that real estate as possible. If its photographed the the designers name will get more play, whether or not its one of the top shows. I'm sure this topic is hotly debated in side as well as out!

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  5. Congrats on making it to Links A La Mode this week! This is such a great poat!

    Haha I love the Kim K at Chanel note! Karl is far to mean to let someone like that sit in his front row [I mean, the guy designed a cage-inspired wedding dress! which was quite brilliant, by the way]

    I think that those who should sit in the front row are the people who reflect the brand and what it represents. And definitely no babies - that is just innapropriate. You don't bring your baby to your office, don't bring it to the runway. [V Beckham did this spring !]

    P.S. I really like your blog. Following [:

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  6. Very interesting post! But you forgot bloggers - where should they sit (if they were lucky enough to get an invite!)? x

    Congrats on making LALM this week :)

    aminorobsession.com

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  7. Interesting blog. I think it depends on who the designer is. If she/he is new and up and coming then his best customers, his bank manager and maybe some of his staff should get front seats .You don’t get successful without help from other people and hardworking staff should be rewarded with a front row seat. . Regular customers are a no brainer, whether they have any fashion sense or not. It’s down to economics, if they are spending their dollars on your brand there is no room for snobbishness – get them the best seats in the house. Fashion editors should also get front seats.. They will be the people promoting you to potential new customers .
    If you are a Stella McCartney or a Karl Lagerfeld then you should still reward some of people that helped you get where you are today with a front seat and may include a few fashion bloggers!

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  8. Congrats on the LALM feature and a fun read! I definitely agree with your picks for who should and shouldn't sit in the front row. Your front row is also the first face of who a brand feels is representative of them so it should be chosen wisely!

    xoxo,
    Chic 'n Cheap Living

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