#publisher alternate (BUTTON) Close Skip to main content sign in * Saved for later * Comment activity * Edit profile * Email preferences * Change password * Sign out subscribe search dating more from the guardian: * dating * jobs change edition: * switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the AU edition International * switch to the UK edition * switch to the US edition * switch to the Australia edition The Guardian * home * › fashion * home * UK * world * sport * football * opinion * culture * business * lifestyle * fashion selected * environment * tech * travel browse all sections close New York fashion week Spring Summer 2015 (autumn 2014 shows) Fashion blog Spike Jonze satire electrifies New York fashion week for Opening Ceremony Humberto Leon and Carol Lim of the cult label Opening Ceremony commissioned the director to produce a hard-hitting one-act play for the event. It was followed by Anthony Vaccarello’s debut collection for Versus Versus Versace - Runway - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 Donatella Versace and designer Anthony Vaccarello walk the runway. Photograph: Jp Yim/Getty Images Jess Cartner-Morley Jess Cartner-Morley @JessC_M Monday 8 September 2014 11.23 BST Last modified on Tuesday 10 February 2015 13.30 GMT * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share via Email * Share on Pinterest * Share on LinkedIn * Share on Google+ * Share on WhatsApp The conundrum facing New York fashion week is this: the pop cultural noise and fanfare around fashion is louder than it has ever been, but everyone – from the consumer to the editors-in-chief – is bored with traditional catwalk shows. The clothes on the catwalk have become overshadowed by the circus of celebrity, models, gossip and street tyle that wraps around them. The actual show has become the excuse for the party, rather than the party itself. What to do? Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, duo behind the cult label Opening Ceremony, had an idea: how about asking Spike Jonze and Jonah Hill to reboot the catwalk show by scripting a one-night-only, one-act play about a catwalk show, in which the new collection serves as theatrical costume in a story about the human dramas of fashion week? Rosario Dawson arrives at the Opening Ceremony show Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rosario Dawson arrives at the Opening Ceremony show Photograph: Ben Rosser/BFAnyc.com/Rex Wacky idea but it might just work. And it did. 100% Lost Cotton, performed using the Metropolitan Opera House as the stage, the audience watching from bleachers backstage, was a story set during the castings and fittings for an imaginary Opening Ceremony catwalk show, with a story playing out between designers, stylists, models and journalists. Actor Elle Fanning played Julie, a 16-year-old model newly arrived from Oklahoma; Catherine Keener played a fictionalised, monstered version of Carol Lim. This was a satire of the fashion industry in which its superficiality, absurdity, addiction problems, and shoddy treatment of young women were all skewered with black humour. “Her legs are making that skirt look horrible,” said the fictional Leon about a model wearing his clothes. “What’s wrong with your legs? Are these your normal legs?” The supermodel Karlie Kloss made a cameo, only for another woman to bitch that she was “in her late early 20s”. Elle Fanning, one of the stars of Spike Jone's Opening Ceremony play Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elle Fanning, one of the stars of Spike Jone’s Opening Ceremony play Photograph: Taylor Hill/Getty Images No matter how funny – or accurate – the play would have been a failure, from a fashion week point of view, if the clothes had gone unnoticed. A theme of innocence wove through the evening, drawing together the clothes and the play. This was a nostalgic collection inspired, said Leon and Lim, by their suburban teenage life in the very early 1990s. An announcement was made before the performance prohibiting the use of phones or cameras, citing a New York City law: a bold move in an age where being shared on social media is all-important, but one which restored a sense of occasion which fashion week sometimes seems to have lost, and imbued the evening with nostalgia. The shape and curve of hems were inspired by primitive computer code, the colours inspired by suburban pools and gardens. Julie, the heroine of the play, represented the ideas which the clothes also try to capture. The dovetailing of script and fashion was an ambitious idea – if it only half-worked, it should get credit for that. Te Versus Versace spring/summer 2015 collection Facebook Twitter Pinterest Te Versus Versace spring/summer 2015 collection Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters It was perhaps slightly bad luck that Anthony Vaccarello’s debut collection for Versus, the secondary Versace line, immediately followed Opening Ceremony on the fashion-week schedule. The house of Versace takes the business of being sexy and slender and wearing almost nothing very seriously indeed – the very attitude that had just been sent up, to great effect, six blocks away. Nonetheless, Donatella will surely be thrilled with this collection, with which Vaccarello, who has already made his name in the industry with startlingly revealing dresses, riffed on the house symbols like a man to the Versace manor born. Greek keys, lion heads, black leather, gold hardware – and bare skin – made for a recognisably Versus, highly commercial collection. Vaccarello, no doubt, has his eyes on the prize: the two designers who preceded him at Versus, Brits Christopher Kane and J W Anderson, have gone on to lucrative deals with international luxury giants Kering and LVMH. __________________________________________________________________ More blogposts Topics * New York fashion week Spring Summer 2015 (autumn 2014 shows) * New York fashion week * Fashion weeks * Spike Jonze * Fashion industry __________________________________________________________________ * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share via Email * Share on Pinterest * Share on LinkedIn * Share on Google+ * Share on WhatsApp * Reuse this content popular The Guardian back to top * home * UK * world * sport * football * opinion * culture * business * lifestyle * fashion selected * environment * tech * travel all sections close * home * UK + education + media + society + law + scotland + wales + northern ireland * world + europe + US + americas + asia + australia + africa + middle east + cities + development * sport + football + cricket + rugby union + F1 + tennis + golf + cycling + boxing + racing + rugby league * football + live scores + tables + competitions + results + fixtures + clubs * opinion + columnists * culture + film + tv & radio + music + games + books + art & design + stage + classical * business + economics + banking + retail + markets + eurozone * lifestyle + food + health & fitness + love & sex + family + women + home & garden * fashion selected * environment + climate change + wildlife + energy + pollution * tech * travel + UK + europe + US + skiing * money + property + savings + pensions + borrowing + careers * science * professional networks * the observer * today's paper + editorials & letters + obituaries + g2 + weekend + the guide + saturday review * sunday's paper + comment + the new review + observer magazine * membership * crosswords + blog + editor + quick + cryptic + prize + quiptic + genius + speedy + everyman + azed * video * Fashion * › New York fashion week Spring Summer 2015 (autumn 2014 shows) IFRAME: /email/form/footer/37 * Facebook * Twitter * Facebook * Twitter * all topics * all contributors * solve technical issue * complaints & corrections * terms & conditions * privacy policy * cookie policy * securedrop © 2016 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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