Summary Of The Enchanted Spectacle

Within the article The Enchanted Spectacle, Caroline Evans (Fashion Theory, 2001) the spectacle of the fashion show and its history has been vividly discussed focusing on its continuous need to be evermore extravagant and vivid to the viewer’s eyes. Within this article she delves into great detail towards both the history and origins of the fashion show and the model, and the notion of how the press has portrayed the ideals of the ever-changing fashion show over the years. Throughout the article Evans’ also focuses on the way in which the idea of the fashion show has become more theatrical and dramatized as to commodify the entire notion of the fashion show as a Spectacle. Evans’ focus on the way in which “the fashion show also has a relationship to art, theatre and film; to consumerism; and to the commodification and eroticization of the female form in mass
This has been noted within the article that “male observers… “Were intrigued by the thought of the svelte-bodied models,” and suggests that “the model was beginning to replace the seamstress and the shop girl in the imagination of the predatory male” (De Marly 1980: 140). (277) Thus highlighting to us the way in which that at the time that the first fashion shows were being produced as a way to “turn the serious business of buying clothes into a social occasion” (277) fashion designers felt that the idea of using performance to sell an object was something so unusual and strange to the people of that time that it would naturally be deemed a Spectacle, helping them to further promote their