The Runway Without a Runway: Brass Bands, Buses, Trolleys, and Fashion’s Deliberate Disobedience

Bizarre & Occult Runway5/5 wildness

The Runway Without a Runway: Brass Bands, Buses, Trolleys, and Fashion’s Deliberate Disobedience

Maison Martin Margiela / 1990s

Throughout the 1990s, Margiela repeatedly dismantled the rituals of the fashion show. In 1993, models wove among a brass band during the presentation, turning the catwalk into a noisy public procession. In 1995, models sat among the audience rather than being separated from it by a conventional runway. For a 1997 presentation, the press received a map directing them to an anonymous French street corner, where models and a Belgian brass band emerged from an AEC Routemaster bus to reveal the collection. Other stunts required editors and buyers to seat themselves according to their perceived importance, while models were rolled into view on trolleys. For two seasons in 1998, the house went further still: one presentation used marionettes made by Jane How instead of live models. These spectacles were not merely eccentric decoration; they attacked fashion’s systems of status, celebrity, and controlled presentation by making the audience uncertain about where the show began, who was important, and whether human models were necessary at all.