Alexandre de Betak on the future of the fashion show

Since it’s always fashion week somewhere, the time has come to talk about the fashion show.

If you’ve ever wondered how these unusual events come to life, this episode is for you. Perhaps you’ve stopped in your tracks (or feed scroll) at evidence of a particularly spectacular show or uniquely intricate set. At times these performance aspects can become even more memorable than the fashion itself. Well, chances are a man named Alexandre de Betak with a headphone backstage was calling the shots. De Betak's job is to travel the world year-round dreaming up the most extrordinary sets and parties, catwalks and choreographies.

In fact, over the past 25 years, the “Fellini of Fashion” has orchestrated over 1,500 fashion sows from the helm of his international production company Bureau Betak. Not only does the producer come up with each universe to compliment his clients’ collections, he is also known for gaining access to some of the world’s most celebrated and protected landmarks in which to do so. This past summer there was the spectacular pink-carpeted Jacquemus show somewhere in a lavender filed in Provence (that could only be found by following an exact GPS location). Or a show by the same designer at Paris' Picasso Museum a few seasons back, an unprecedented feat that no doubt required a certain amount of arm-twisting among the Paris establishment. Ditto for the Dior mirror box de Betak built in Moscow’s Red Square, the one he constructed in the center of the Louvre, or in the garden of the Rodin Museum… locations most creatives can only dream of taking over.

As your hosts sit down with de Betak to discuss his unique and largely self-invented career trajectory, they also ask the show maestro to speculate on where the very concept of the fashion show is going next, on why the bi-annual four-city circuit as we know it should really be rethought, and how to properly integrate sustainability if he can help it. Which, of course, he can.

Instagram accounts you may want to follow after listening to this episode include:

@AlexdeBetak

@BureauBetal

@BureauFutur

@Dior

@YSL

@Jacquemus

@MuseePicasso

and of course,

@MonicaAinleydlv

@CamilleCharriere

@FashionNoFilter.

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