Lightroom and Vogue to launch immersive catwalk exhibition in London

A new immersive exhibition exploring the history of catwalk shows will premiere at London’s Lightroom on 25 October. Called Vogue: Inventing the Runway, it “spans the intimate couture salons of the early 20th century to the spectacles of the present”. 

It will use Vogue’s archive and contributor network “to create an experience that brings together the industry’s leading voices from the past, present, and future”.

Vogue is promising “first-hand testimony and a rich mixture of media” to reveal how fashion shows “became the ultimate statement of a designer’s vision – at times, a walking expression of their identity – reimagined season after season and year after year”.

And some fashion’s biggest names have signed up to take part, including (among many others) Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Burberry, Chanel, Chloé, Dior, Comme des Garçons, Courrèges, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries Van Noten, Gucci, Jean Paul Gaultier, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu, Prada, Stella McCartney, Thierry Mugler and Versace. 

We’re told the exhibition will “bring us inside fashion shows – on the front row and behind the scenes – transporting audiences through locations and eras… With Lightroom’s four-storey walls as our 360-degree canvas, we will experience and interact with designers’ visions up close, in new ways and at unprecedented scale”.

Included will be a cycle of thematic chapters that will use original animation “in an experience that is both visceral and insightful, with immersive sound design and a score fusing original composition with classical and pop music, all of which will evoke the worlds when iconic shows shifted the cultural landscape”.

The show will feature Vogue’s coverage and its archive, dating back to its first publication in 1892, as well as rare materials from fashion houses and contributors, commentary from editors who witnessed landmark shows, the models who walked them and the designers who created them.

Chioma Nnadi, Head of Editorial Content for British Vogue, said: “It’s fitting to host this Lightroom experience within skipping distance of Central Saint Martins, where so many of the UK’s fashion students begin their journeys to becoming designers we know and love. I hope that the exhibition can be an educational tool that brings to life the most iconic cultural moments through fashion’s lens, for the next generation of aspiring designers.”

Tickets are on sale now.