Fashion: Going Backstage - Hunger for Insider Access

Whilst undertaking my degree in Fashion Communication, I gained a placement working for a well known and acclaimed model casting director during London Fashion Week. During this time, I became utterly fascinated with the behind the scenes of the fashion industry; the hard work which goes into creating fashion productions, the endless months of planning for creating a collection for subsequent shows and presentations, right through the chain to how ad campaigns are produced and publication photo shoots and fashion film.

I was fascinated by this so much, that I based my entire final year project around exploring the behind the scenes of the fashion industry, and subsequently created a luxury image-driven fashion publication entitled 'BACKSTAGE', for my final major project. This documented the processes involved in producing a fashion show, giving the growing fashion hungry audience a chance to explore elements of fashion shows which are usually only seen by those working in the industry, from the initial model edits through to castings, hair and make-up tests and production teams working behind the scenes.

My publication won me the Hachette Filipacchi Media and Design Award at Graduate Fashion Week 2010 and since then, I have only seen the hunger build  and build for fashion consumers desire to see more than just an retouched image on a magazine page, or the final cut of a video on SHOWstudio or Nowness; they want to know everything about the initial processes of a photoshoot, what the fashion director is wearing for work, the months of planning behind features and securing interviews; every last detail.

This trend is really hitting hard now across all industries, and particularly fashion, with events like the Vogue Festival including Q&A sessions with Jourdan Dunn and some of fashion top models for their view on the industry and a behind the scenes look at a Burberry shoot, ELLE UK's 'What the Editor Wears' and 'What ELLE Wears to Work' blogs and ELLE UK live tweeting from cover shoots. 

The demand for an access all areas insight is only increasing brand awareness (and profits) - most notably, heritage British fashion house Burberry are leading the way with access for everyone; catwalk shows are streamed live online, looks are instantly shoppable and their Twitter stream previews each look before the models head down the runway (Tweetwalk), making the fashion enthusiast sitting at home watching the show just as important to brands, as the fashion editor on the front row.

It's really interesting seeing how fashion houses, designers, magazines etc are really making an industry that was once only laid bare for select insiders, now open for everyone. I wonder how brands/publications/designers will develop this idea of access for all and what they will do next...