The geopolitics of fashion week

Everyone’s dressed weird, taxis are a more jealously-guarded resource than rare earths, and it’d be easier to sneak into Putin’s bunker than find a barstool for post-work drinks. This can only mean one thing: fashion week is here.

Every year, twice a year, thousands descend on four cities (NYC, London, Milan, and Paris) to see the newest designer creations at the forefront of a $1.7T global industry. 

We know. We know. Why write about how to style the Pantone colour of the year (Mocha Mousse for those wondering) when the geopolitical Super Bowl (UNGA) is on next door?! Fear not, we’ll likely do an UNGA wrap-up on Monday once that dust has settled. 

But in the meantime, let’s take a quick look at the geopolitics of fashion week: 

1. The VVIP guestlist 

There are two ways to score a front row seat at a major fashion show: either be a celebrity, or spend a fortune to become a fashion house’s ‘very important client’ (VIC).

Brands live off that symbiotic relationship with influential clientele, but it can backfire. Most initially withdrew from Russia in solidarity with the Ukrainians after Putin went all-in, for example. But then… what about all those high-paying Russian clients?

Brands publicly distanced themselves at first, but that didn’t last long. As early as 2023, Tatyana Naryshkina (the wife of Putin’s sanctioned foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin) was back rolling around Parisian couture spots like it was nbd.

And now at fashion week events this year? It’s oligarch wives and ex-wives galore, with names like Perminova and others all lounging in the front row.

2. Fashion is (soft) power 

Like any cultural output, fashion can help countries burnish their brand abroad: urgggh, it’s just so darn tough being this effortlessly hip and sophisticated all the time, non?

That’s why, for example, Italy’s foreign ministry has launched an initiative mobilising its diplomats to showcase Italian fashion abroad, with events at Dubai’s fashion week and beyond. It likely also helps diversify the sector’s revenues as China sales plateau.

But that mix of soft power and cash also explains why every global city — whether Hong Kong, São Paulo, Lagos, or Delhi — now has its own fashion week, too.

3. It’s a money maker

Fashion isn’t just something most world leaders lack a sense of. It’s a major industry accounting for 5% of the economy in Italy, 1.8% in the UK, and 3% in France.

And while it might sound cooler than, say, the US Packaging Association’s big annual cardboard box conference in Illinois, or the UK’s gathering of the Society of Bookbinders over in Kentish Town, fashion week is at its core still just a trade show like the others.

So in addition to filling hotel rooms and bars, the big purchasing decisions emerging out of fashion week have a long tail across local economies, and drive tourism year-round. 

4. A runway for political statements

Of course, no gathering of creatives is complete until one of them weighs in on a political or geopolitical issue — aside from the merits of any particular cause, it also consistently generates massive brand awareness as legacy talking heads yell at each other in response.

• A$AP Rocky (who Liam Gallagher once amusingly called WhatsApp Ricky) debuted his American Sabotage line last year to critique American cultural decay

• Vivienne Westwood occasionally sneaks in designs promoting Scottish independence, and

• Italy’s Moschino has now weighed in on the environment by having models rock handbags resembling trash bags.

Just us, or does that last one seem a lot like Derek Zoolander’s Derelicte?