Vesma Mcquillan

Enjoy 2 free articles a month. For unlimited access, get a membership now. This season, the fashion show’s relationship with public space became impossible to ignore – as spectacular scenography collided with community displacement, environmental pressure and a European heatwave. For more than ten years, I have studied runway scenography because I believe fashion shows reveal possible futures of public space.

For SS27 Menswear, Prada filled Milan’s Deposito with a dense orthogonal grid of light. FRAME’s take In recent seasons, the fashion show set has increasingly become a medium and subject in its own right. With the opening of the exhibition Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show at the Vitra Design Museum, the interpretation and circulation of fashion show spaces have become one of the fashion industry’s dominant narratives.

The seven stand-out set designs of Paris Fashion Week's Women's AW24 season were infused with a deep sense of emotion through movement, space and theatricality. There was a significant departure from screen-dictated movements to those choreographed by the sets and individuals involved, incorporating technology in a way that prioritized human connection.