When your heart skips a beat...the fashion shows I'll never forget

Drawn to the fashion circus like a magnet at a very young age, when I moved to Madrid as a late teenager I volunteered backstage at it's Fashion Week for many seasons.

I have been to a fair share of shows in my lifetime and have mentioned a couple in this blog which have had a considerable imapct in my life and have stayed very relevant in my memory, here and here...

There are a few shows however, which keep appearing in my thoughts when I look back at the past few years in fashion. Some which I attended...in spirit...and the others... in person.

The first show I'd like to share with you happened in October 2004. I was at a waiting lounge at Charles de Gaulle airport, returning to Dublin from my first trip to Paris Fashion Week as an independent designer. I crossed eyes with a very young silver haired girl who by the looks had obviously been in the city for the same purpose. She was a buyer for a great boutique in Belfast called the Bureau.

The evening before she had been to fashion show by one of my favourite designers, Dries van Noten. The very short hour flight back was hardly enough for her to describe the extraordinary efforts Dries' team had made to put on the show for his 50th collection. Her excitement was so contagious it was if I had been part of it myself.

Apparently, 500 guests were summoned at certain location and then driven in buses to a distant factory/warehouse outside of Paris. They walked into the empty warehouse and all they could see were huge chandeliers hanging from the cieling. As they got closer they realized there was a long long long table set for dinner. After the '250 waiter choreographed dinner' was severed, the chandeliers were raised and the table turned into a catwalk .

Deservingly, it was the most talked about show that season and many seasons later you can still over hear people talking about it during fashion week.

Here are a few of the images... and a link to my Facebook page were I've shared a video