The designer Nicole Farhi has recently come forward about the dark side of the fashion world; big power houses/fashion designers have been paying the front row of their fashion shows to attend so that they can receive the publicity they are so desperately seeking. In the past this has always been talked about and speculated but Farhi, the French-born London based designer, is the first one who has openly spoken about this issue; she has stated that she personally has never, or will, pay people to attend her fashion shows:
"It is so unprofessional. I have never paid a celebrity and I will never do it. It's stupid. (Stella Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph)
Other British fashion figures have also backed Farhi saying that there ought to be more designers like her, more designers refraining from sinking to the low level of paying people to attend their shows for publicity.
It is believed that the appearance of fees for fashion originated in the US and swept rapidly across the globe; within the past three years the appearance of front row fees at shows have rocketed. This is mainly down to the fact that once the word got out that people were being to attend shows, everybody jumped on the bandwagon and wanted a slice of the doe.
This news, now made concrete by Farhi's words, has cast a dark shadow upon the fashion industry. It has taken away from fashion its essence and portrayed it as a corporation solely seeking to gain money and publicity through paying celebrities to sit on their front row so they make the headlines; in the papers the majority of reports on fashion shows see images of celebrities sat on the front row rather than the actual clothes from the designer - this is truly a sad site for any fashion lover but for the designer people associating celebrities to their brand more often than note helps with sales - again this is truly sad for the loyal fashion designers.
No designers have been named as taking part in this degrading idea but we all now know that a lot do take part in it. Hopefully with Farhi's words on the subject the BFC (British Fashion Council) will discourage designers from taking part in this and we will see the designers following this and find more moral means to gain publicity.
Hopefully fashion will start to revert back to what it was and stay away from a publicity grabbing organisation, this is the image currently portrayed.
Designers like Farhi have paved the way and are truly inspirational people - a congratulations is deserved for Farhi for her honest words on the situation and plan to stomp it out.
Lets hope the front row fees diminish and that people start attending the shows because they have a true love for haute-couture and not just for the money.
B.
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