By Hadley Freeman (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-17 07:24

Before we start, I would like to emphasize that I have nothing but sympathy for all the makeup artists, fashion stylists and hairdressers who are missing their moments in the sun through the cancellation of the Golden Globes awards - and possibly of next month's Oscars - due to the writers' strike.

As is the case in every battle, it is the innocent people who suffer; and no matter what the outcome of the strikes may be, I think we can guarantee that the big studios will survive comfortably.

The furore about the chaos the cancellations would wreak on Los Angeles, with one estimate suggesting it will cost the city at least $200 million if the Oscars are scrapped - has been echoed by fashion designers, claiming that their financial loss will be, if not on a par, at least relatively comparable, because these events are more effective than advertisements in terms of brand recognition.

Valentino has said that getting one of his dresses on a winner, as he did with Julia Roberts in 2001, is worth $25 million in sales, while Chanel has said that dressing Nicole Kidman in 2002 was worth $10 million in sales in the United States alone.

Good for fashion

Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel that a year's respite from the annual red carpet hoo-hah would do the fashion industry some good in the long term.

Yes, pictures of Jessica Random wearing Dior Couture might shift some eye shadows. But this assumed importance of celebrity has been taken to such extremes in the fashion world that the shows now seem to be more about the designer showing off which actresses and pop stars - and offspring thereof - they can get in the front row than the clothes on the runway.

Certainly it is not hard to feel that way when a show is held up for two hours because front-row guest Beyonce is running late, as Marc Jacobs recently did, or when John Galliano delayed his show by an hour for the arrival of celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe.

When designers start to value celebrities over actual customers, the clothes become more expensive, more impractical and seemingly more irrelevant than ever, as is increasingly the situation.

Once fashion did seem to reflect the changing lives of modern women, as with Dior's New Look of the 1940s, or the shoulder-padded power suits of the 1980s. Now it often feels as if designers are tailoring their collections to pander to celebrity stylists and the paparazzi - which would at least explain the continuing popularity on the catwalks of crippling stilettos, minuscule dresses and other clothes designed for lifestyles based on maximum photo opportunities and minimal body fat.

Next week will be an interesting case in point, with the autumn/winter couture shows taking place in Paris - an occasion when the fashion world kowtows to celebrity with more obsequiousness than at any other time of the year.

Because these shows happen in the middle of the award season, designers overtly cater to the paparazzi- seeking celebrity, in the hope that the dresses will be ripped straight off the catwalk and on to some actress's back for the Vanity Fair Oscars party.

Of course, we are talking couture so even if the Oscars are cancelled, designers are never going to make strictly practical clothes. But just as there is a certain kind of "Oscar acting", so there is a kind of "Oscar fashion". If the diminution of the awards ceremony means the abolition of both these things, surely that is no bad thing.

And surely it can only be to the good for the fashion world to be reminded, for at least one year, that celebrity endorsement is not the only happy ending.

The Guardian

(China Daily 01/17/2008 page9)