Runway: The Spectacle of Fashion

Image of Runway: The Spectacle of Fashion
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
October 3, 2016
Publisher/Imprint: 
Rizzoli
Pages: 
288
Reviewed by: 

Without question, the cast of characters reads like a who’s who of fashion over the past quarter of a century. The issue is neither the subject nor the cast but for a book that needs to possess the most arresting visuals, Runway falls short, a major deficit considering that this book is all about the visual and not just about the written.

Even if Alix Browne’s frame of reference is the last two decades or so, the big picture, no pun intended, is that there are far more eye catching and almost breathtaking photographs that are presented in the media that would far better illustrate the subtitle of book, The Spectacle of Fashion. It is conceivable that the expectation and reality did not equate since it appears the reviewer’s frame of reference is much broader than that of the author.

For the less informed of fashion readers, the book might prove to be everything they expected, but for the more seasoned fashion reader there might be an issue. Without a doubt all of this is due to the over saturation of images we are repeatedly bombarded with during fashion weeks around the world. The Internet has become a double a edged sword for those of us in the business of fashion as we have become jaded and spoiled by the quality and quantity that is so readily available when it comes to fashion images.

There is an extreme shortage of quotes of any kind, odd given Browne’s position within the fashion hierarchy. Without a doubt, additional direct or even indirect quotes might have helped create a far more magnetic view and add some gravitas to a very heady fashion subject.