Chanel released a trio of mini documentaries by Loïc Prigent, staged in its four haute couture ateliers and at the Creation studio at 31 rue Cambon, while Dior followed its usual schedule – 2:30pm Paris time on the first day of couture week – with a less-than-usual fantastical film Le Mythe Dior directed by Matteo Garrone. Beautifully done, the video was imbued with creativity, retelling the story of Théâtre de la Mode, a project started in 1945 to promote French couture around the world.

For most brands, the collections shrank to a much smaller number of looks. Chanel for example, usually presents 60-80 looks, a number squeezed down to 30 this season. Dior also downsized – not just in the way it presented them in its miniature-themed video – but from around 70 looks to 37.

There are other things missing too: the glamour of style hitting the street, the physical human interactions, of course, and the vibrant sense of creative energy at play – a fashion week’s impact goes well beyond the runways.

A fashion show is a holistic experience – an elaborate sensual collection of sights, sounds, smells, touches and much more. A spectator is immersed in a beautiful jigsaw – the venue, the clothes, the models, the runway, the movement and emotions all fit together to create the final telling picture. On this front, a digital fashion week has a long way to go.

On the positive side, autumn 2020, compared to previous seasons, lacked the stress of Parisian police supervising traffic jams of brand-logo’ed luxury vehicles transporting A-list celebrities to the venues, shoulder-rubbing fans queuing to get a glance of their idols, streets packed with photographers and well-heeled influencers competing for the spotlight.

I definitely didn’t miss the hustle, the mad dash from one show to the next, and the long waits as presentations are dragged into a cycle, all a minimum of 30 minutes late. Eating only one meal a day, at midnight, makes Paris no romance, but that’s a normal day for most fashion week goers.

Apart from eliminating such headaches, what live-streaming has cracked open are the intricate politics and hierarchy of fashion by democratising access to the shows. In the fashion world, as superficial and heartless as it sounds, where you sit is a manifestation of who you are. From the back to front, the benches signal the ascending echelons of money, fame and titles. And the first row is a cry of “I’ve made it”.

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On the to-die-for fashion show floor, it’s no surprise to hear, “Don’t you know who I am?” Once at a show, a pair of attendees walked in and found themselves in the back row. Looking shocked and embarrassed, they refused to sit down and one protested to the brand’s PR that she was the goddaughter of someone big, complaining “I can’t sit here”. This from just a teenager, but one well aware of the pecking order.

One conglomerate’s PR revealed that 40 per cent of the seats at a fashion show are allocated to media, 30 per cent to buyers, 10 per cent to clients and another 10 per cent to other partners and guests.

Influential media organisations’ chief executives, editors and celebrities in important markets like North America, China and affluent European countries are positioned in the first row. They cosy side-by-side with brand owners, A-list celebrities and special guests such as Queen Elizabeth at Richard Quinn’s show, for example. As the row numbers go back from A-Z, the importance and relevance diminishes.

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It's not intended as a personal affront to anyone, all show venues have limited seats and brands must install such hierarchy to achieve their intended impact from a show that often could cost millions of dollars.

Such ranking is significant for celebrities as they are often captured on camera. Being invited to established brands’ shows, such as Chanel or Dior, are testimony to their recognition and a compliment, as well as an opportunity to score commercial contracts.

Stars are often invited to the show via the brand themselves or a media invitation, while brands distribute a certain number of tickets based on each market’s contribution to their business. The front row benches are meticulously assigned by a group of clever PRs, and sometimes in order to bag a coveted ticket, some stars even turn up uninvited.

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In 2018, a luxury brand’s PR called out a female celebrity who pretended to be an invited guest to elevate her status. As the celebrity endeavoured to squeeze into the front row, she was asked by the brand's staff to leave. Eventually, she was downgraded to a corner seat far from the runway.

It was not an isolated incident. In 2019, media veterans spotted a fresh male star whose Chanel front row post was not his actual seat, neither had he been invited by the brand or any media.

In recent years, influencers have moved their way from seats deep at the back to the front rows as brands recognise the rising impact of their cohort. If there’s any fallout or a downgrade in their place in the hierarchy, the repercussions are felt much more personally as they represent themselves, not a corporation.

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Such drama and politics are all over every fashion show venue. As superficial as it sounds, this is how the fashion industry has worked for decades. Will it ever change? My feeling is – for physical shows at least – as long as the shows go on, so will the politics.

However, rather than magnifying the floor plan, we really should lend more attention to the designers and their creativity. Meanwhile, the industry needs more liberating moves, like Karl Lagerfeld’s attempts to seat everyone in the front row, or more radically, opening up the exclusivity to even pedestrians on the street at the Chanel Cruise 2016 show hosted in Cuba.

After all, fashion is for everyone.

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