vienna

So, a potential crisis is also implanted into the system. We
can imagine that the ritual audience is often as anxious about
selecting a trend for the next six months as fashion consumers
usually are when asking themselves what they want to choose
for the day. 569 Once the oracle has declared its decision, the
message is circulated in fashion journals. Since the ultimate consumer
is absent at the catwalk presentation, the messages are
interpreted by the media. 570 It is, therefore, a live performance in
a mediated culture. Ancient Greek festivals were not “live” performances
in this sense, because no means of recording existed
then. 571 People were physically present when they took place.
Today’s fashion victim watches the procession from afar, and
usually only months later. 572 But by then the spectacle has already
been interpreted. The fashion buyers have ordered and fashion
editors have made their picture selections and layouts for the
upcoming issues. The reportage is split into two parts. While
some of the articles appear in daily newspapers in the fashion
show period, the larger coverage comes only months later in the
fashion magazines, parallel to the launching of the new seasonal
collection. The catwalk is a kind of procession with a complex
split of audience in time and space. 573 The involvement of young
female participants in the procession is a phenomenon we are
quite familiar with from the study of ancient Greek processions:
“Processions were particularly suited to make symbolic statements
about power relations, since they often drew large audiences.
For example during the sacrificial procession of the Panathenaea
Athenian colonies and allies had to parade a cow and panoply,
the daughters of Athenian metics carried parasols for female
citizens, and adult metics carried sacrificial equipment; colonies
also had to contribute a phallus to the processions of the Great
Dionysia. Whereas processions thus demonstrated Athenian
superiority, they could also demonstrate modesty. During the
Spartan Hyacinthia festival, adolescent girls rode down in a
procession to Amyclae, showing themselves off to the community
after, probably, an initiatory seclusion at the border area.” 574
569 Clarke/Miller (2002:192) conducted an ethnographic study about the anxiety of consumers to choose the right dress assuming
that the fashion industry and the journalism associated with it may have little concern for this problem.
570 Kahn (2000:116).
571 Auslander (1999:51).
572 An increasing number of fashion boutiques now presents recorded fashion shows in its show rooms. Is this permanent
representation of the power of fashion a sign of crisis?
573 For the perception of rituals through media and about how shared enthusiasm is flattened into spectacle, see also Bell
(1997:243).
574 Bremmer (1999:40).
Procession
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