BACK TO THE FUTURE?
03.04.24 | JULIA MELBOURNE
Yes, I said it: corporate expectations around marketing leaders are insane.
Last week in Paris, those lucky enough to attend The Row Winter ‘24 presentation were given a pencil (Blackwing) and notebook. The decision to ban social media sparked much debate among fashion critics and beyond.
In an age where every step we make is tracked and everyone tries to remain relevant, as the months and years hurtle past at an alarming rate, there is something refreshing about this decision to pause time.
Growing up in an era where the creatives, even more so publicists, were firmly behind the scenes, this new age of being so constantly visible seems the antithesis of what was instilled in me when starting out at Maison Margiela.
Margiela was famously never seen in front of the camera and would only communicate to the media through the Maison as a collective, yet was very much present to us all at our home on rue du Faubourg Poissonnière and later in the classrooms of the school we took over in the 11th.
Not only does this stance from The Row take us back to that golden window pre-instagram (see previous notes on the simple joys of taking show requests by fax and those crinkled carbon copy paper dockets for sample send-outs) but in a time where we are connected 24-7 and our inboxes flooded, it personally always brings more joy to source a pristine paper copy of a rare magazine than to scroll mindlessly in search of treasure at the never-ending fountain of Instagram.
Perhaps this is the first step back to the future or is it simply a nod to nostalgia?
"The chicest thing’ said Phoebe Philo in 2013 ‘is when you don't exist on Google.”
