The most iconic fashion shows of the 80s From Thierry Mugler to Comme des Garçons

Until the mid-sixties, the fashion show was guided by strict rules: models who moved silently among clients and journalists. Then with Courrèges and Kenzo the models started dancing rather than walking, until, in the 80s, those presentations became real happenings with theatrical performances and guest stars on the catwalk. From Claude Montana to Thierry Mugler, from Giorgio Armani to Franco Moschino, from Jean Charles de Castelbajac to Christian Lacroix, there were many designers who shaped the aesthetics of the era with their creations and shows.

We selected five fashion shows iconic for the clothes, the set, the models or the performance.

Vivienne Westwood FW 1981

1984. In Paris, for the first time a couturier unveiled his collection to the mass public, who bought a ticket as if for a concert. It was Thierry Mugler who, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his brand, staged L'Hiver des Anges at the Zenith in the Villette district, in front of a paying audience of 6,000 people. More than just a fashion show, the event was an artistic performance combining fashion, music and theatre, with models turned into angels or dressed in outfits inspired by the Olympics, space and religion. In the finale, which journalist Marion Hume described as "a brave, deranged declaration that fashion designers, and even ordinary mortals, need not be confined by the gravity of planet Earth", a Madonna-like Pat Cleveland came down from the ceiling in a shower of petals.

Recalling that moment, Pat said:

I was six months pregnant when I came down out of the sky. [….] I said okay and they hooked me up to this contraption in the ceiling. It attached under your arms and under your bottom, like a parachute; if you’ve ever seen Peter Pan, it’s the same thing. [….] The god of fashion had me in the sky coming out as the Miraculous [in a] dress with beautiful blue stones…It was a magnificent [….] I always felt [like I was making history] when I did [his] shows because he is one of the most fabulous creative showmen.

Jean-Paul Gaultier SS 1985

With her creations for Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo presented a completely new and revolutionary counterpart to the trends of the period, providing an antidote to the exaggerated and refined proposals that characterized the 1980s. Her black and almost monastic fashion and her radical vision of fashion have conquered an audience accustomed to excess, color and loud items that also includes many celebrities. The most iconic of these was Jean-Michel Basquiat who took part as a model, sporting a pair of grey suits, in Comme des Garçons Homme Plus SS 1987 fashion show. Alongside Basquiat, artists Robert Rauschenberg and Francesco Clemente and actors John Malcovich, Dennis Hopper and Julian Sands also walked the CDG catwalk.

Christian Lacroix Haute Couture Spring 1988

Christian Lacroix defined the aesthetics of the 1980s, combining bright colors and extravagant decorations. His neo-baroque style, rich in embroidery, velvets, ruffles, embellishments, jewelry, folklore and traditional elements reflected the desires of a new generation hungry for luxury. The perfect example of this opulence was the "le pouf", the balloon skirt, often worn with a short blazer jacket. The haute couture shows maximized all these aspects and were so successful that journalist Julie Baumgold wrote about his fashion:

Such wonderful dresses and such a provocative luxury were perhaps last seen in the 18th century, when the French aristocrats on chariots passing by the cobbl with great fanfare on the cobblestones set off on their journey to the guillotine.