A Video Show on the Catwalk

For the presentation of the Design Icons of its KN collection, Knoll has been inspired by the fashion world this year. To bridge unusual periods without events, fashion shows and trade fairs, the fashion houses developed innovative forms of presentation to bring their new collections to the world: streamed live fashion shows in combination with interactive digital press events made it possible to experience an event up close despite the distance.

On 24 September 2020, the Italian fashion house Prada presented its 2021 summer collection for the first time in digital streaming. It was broadcast on all Prada social media platforms and on the website. Last year, digital tools helped the brands to present themselves globally. Prada combined virtual and face-to-face formats to present its 2021 women’s summer collection: In addition to digitally streaming the live show, virtual viewing events took place in cities such as New York, LA, Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow, Istanbul, Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The fusion of technology and the visual aesthetics of a live fashion show was brought into focus right at the beginning of the fashion show. The models walked amidst cameras and monitors attached to a 360-degree moving tripod. The focus of the show was on the fact that technology can capture the fashion designs from every angle and every perspective — so that the virtual viewer sees more than the actual viewer. Each new model was marked on the monitors with a number and the model’s name, an aid to the process that is usually only seen behind the scenes. In this way, Prada succeeded in making the quick sequences via labelling a complementary feature of the digital transmission.

The brands’ commitment to creating a symbiotic relationship between real-life fashion and its staging via technology was palpable. On social media, more than 12,000 users followed the show. After the fashion show, the designers of the collection, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, presented themselves to the international audience for a Q&As session.

Following this inspiration, Knoll, the world-renowned design furniture manufacturer, also presented the seven seating pieces of the KN Collection in their entirety for the first time in a KN Collection Show: the setting for the show was an Italian factory. In its light-flooded rooms, the Design Icons were staged on a mobile catwalk. The ambience perfectly staged the elegant creations with their stylistic features from different angles.

The role of the show’s protagonist was played by Piero Lissoni, the creative mind behind the collection’s designs. The camera directed the viewer’s attention to the characteristically smooth and curved seat shells, the characteristic style element of the Design Icons and guarantor of the unique comfort of the seating furniture. The perfect combination of technology and aesthetics implemented in the KN Collection could be impressively staged in this innovative moving image format.

Read an interesting case about Piero Lissoni at hicklvesting.