PARIS — From Flowerbombs to mouse clicks.
Fashion showmen extraordinaire Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren said Monday that they would present their spring-summer 2009 collection on their Web site, in lieu of the Paris runway, on which the Dutch designers in the past have featured pyrotechnics, fog and blue-screen technology effects.
WWD reported Monday that the designers would forgo the runway this season as they transition to new ownership by Renzo Rosso’s Only the Brave Srl. Starting with the fall-winter 2009 season, Staff International, Only the Brave’s manufacturing and distribution arm, will hold the exclusive worldwide license for Viktor & Rolf’s women’s and men’s collections of clothing, shoes and accessories. Gibò will manufacture and distribute the spring collection.
“It’s a creative solution between partners,” Snoeren said Monday. “It’s quite a big production. We’re shooting it next week.”
The online showcase, to go live on Oct. 2 on their new Web site, viktor-rolf.com, will depict an actual fashion show in the Grand Salon of their virtual house. “It’s a bit like in the Fifties in the French couture salons,” Snoeren said. However, the online version will employ the latest technologies and allow for “guests” to access the backstage area, to see hair and makeup, and to pop in on the designers for fittings of their collection, titled Funny Face.
“There’s so many possibilities on the Internet,” Snoeren said.
Not that he and Horsting can resist the thrill of a real show. “This gives us a chance next season to have a fresh start with a real runway show in Paris,” Snoeren said.