The front row at a fashion show used to be made up of magazine editors and buyers, whose jobs are to stay on top of trends and see new collections. But in the past half-century, the coveted seats have become much about the celebrities sitting on them as it's been about the shows themselves. i-D magazine detailed the change in a recent article, and it's interesting to see just how much things have changed.
Although fashion shows have always included "an honored person in the front row," fashion photographer Patrick McMullan told i-D that the individual was typically "someone important to the designer," like a family member. This is completely different from the star-studded front rows we are used to today, a shift that started with Andy Warhol and American fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick in the '70s.
i-D breaks down the evolution of the fashion show from when celebrities started infiltrating shows in the '90s to the influx of bloggers at today's shows. Designers started paying celebrities massive sums to appear at their shows because they attracted attention, and bloggers were invited due to their wide reach on social media. Even rappers started showing up.
Read the entire story over on i-D.
[via i-D]
