The Rear View 🍑

What's hiding behind, Second-Row-Seat Realizations and Attention to Detail.

Feb 12, 2023

Back Problems

Over the years, we have cultivated the habit of rushing to Vogue Runway or Getty Images right after every show, looking to ingest as immediately as possible everything available about our favorite collections. Some years back, a few hours passed before the runway photos hit the app, and perhaps a couple more after that for a detailed review – the ultimate resource for our immersion into the show. Now, while shows are happening live in New York, London, Milan, Paris, or wherever, we instantly see images popping up in the albums as models prance down the runway. It’s like fashion magic.

Immediateness keeps the hype alive – great for brand engagement rates and active users on the sites, also, we love a brand wanting to translate the excitement of a show to their online viewers. It’s magical and a fantastic tool in many ways, but I wonder if the same need for immediateness could change a designer’s approach to attention to detail.

Every new season I notice how brands –possibly to serve a faster delivery of show images– are more specific about the imagery of their collections available for the public, limiting how we get to see the clothes and, more specifically, what we see of them. The ‘Details’ section on Vogue Runway – have you noticed how many brands have said, ‘I don’t know her’ to it, hence we only get to see frontal views of the looks? Are we being traded a full intake of the garments for a faster look at the collection?

No seat is a bad seat at a fashion show – unless you’re seating behind a column or a speaker. As my friend Laura says, “second row is still in the show”. Once, I got a seat at a show from where I could only catch 2 seconds of the frontal view of the looks before everything I saw was its back; a full-on back view for the rest of the model’s permanence in the space.

All the pictures I had from the show were back views, and even though none of them worked for Instagram (lol), they helped –or forced– me to appreciate the garments differently. Browsing through them, I got to see how rich construction was and the detail they had given to the back of the garments in the collection.

There was in particular a yellow satin skirt, with a courageous draping that twisted, turned, and melted. The front, although short, very modest, pretty. The back (my view) featured a liquid-like draping that, from a part detached from the waistline, revealed a smartly positioned pocket between the skirt’s waves and the crinoline (surprise).

The Spring 2023 collections, coincidentally, were full of strong back moments, many of which we are not aware due to the scarcity of imagery of the collections. At Prada, for example, many garments featured ripped details by and large. A cardigan & slit pencil skirt look, in particular, which seemed very corporate and brutalist from the front, was scarred in the back with a deep, uneven slice. A crack in the garment, an earthquake that only reached the back. A collection full of detail, most of which is there is no trace of online.

If you ever like a garment, look at it from behind. You could be disappointed, but you could also fall in love.

Why paying attention to the back?

Wanting to understand a designer’s take on the concern I’m raising, I chatted with Valentina Marinovic, a talented designer whose curriculum includes otherworldly creations for Marc Jacobs and Thom Browne.

For you, why is it important to give attention to the back of a garment? What makes a good back?

“It is important because it is a view of ourselves over which we have very little control, because we do not see it. Therefore, if the garment has a fault, we do not even realize it. For me, it is always important for a back to have structure (especially the shoulders) so that it builds the silhouette and stylizes. I tend to favor slightly wider shoulders that outline and make the hips look smaller.”

“I like backs that have some detail – embroideries, a back yoak, a cut. For me, it's nice that the designer thinks about what the client will never see, but still cares for it anyway.”

Fashion I Liked

Since we’re already talking about Prada SS2023: when the collection showed last September, I was intrigued to see how these pieces would translate off-runway, for the particularity of the fabric manipulation, and the many slits and rips. This week, at a satellite event of Mexico City’s art week, Vogue Mexico’s Karla Martinez de Salas gave me the answer. She styled look #12 from the collection with matching Prada shoes from another collection. She looked fantastic, and happy. I love it when a fashion idea is tangible and makes people happy.