The Fashion Set

Book excerpt: High fashion remains the ultimate in modern luxury, but gone are the days of special previews of new collections in hushed rooms behind locked doors. In the last ten years, the fashion show has been utterly transformed, since innovators like Dries van Noten marched models down a glamorous banquet table and Lagerfeld trooped his Fendi collection along the Great Wall of China. Social networking and digital media have redefined the value of the fashion show and international brands are now throwing down the bespoke gauntlet to one another to produce stunning, theatrical events.