A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase his or her upcoming line of clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

 during Fashion Week

Fashion Week

A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, which allows fashion designers, brands or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows and buyers and the media to take a look at the latest trends. Most importantly, these events let the industry know...

. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons. This is where the latest fashion trends are made. The two most influential fashion weeks are Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week is a famous fashion week held semi-annually in Paris, France with Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation...

 and London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week is an apparel trade show held in London, England twice each year, in February and September. It is one of the "Big Four" fashion weeks, along with New York Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week.-Organization:...

, which are both biannual events.

In a typical fashion show, models walk the catwalk dressed in the clothing created by the designer. Occasionally, fashion shows take the form of installations, where the models are static, standing or sitting in a constructed environment. The order in which each model walks out wearing a specific outfit is usually planned in accordance to the statement that the designer wants to make about his or her collection. It is then up to the audience to not only try to understand what the designer is trying to say by the way the collection is being presented, but to also visually deconstruct each outfit and try to appreciate the detail and craftsmanship of every single piece. A wide range of contemporary designers tend to produce their shows as theatrical productions with elaborate sets and added elements such as live music or a variety of technological components like holograms, for example.

History

Because "the topic of fashion shows remains to find its historian", the earliest history of fashion shows remains obscure.

In the 1800s, "fashion parades" periodically took place in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 couture

Haute couture

Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...

 salons.

American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 retailers imported the concept of the fashion show in the early 1900s. The first American fashion show likely took place in 1903 in the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 store Ehrlich Brothers. By 1910, large department stores such as Wanamaker's

Wanamaker's

Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...

 in New York City and Philadelphia were also staging fashion shows. These events showed couture gowns from Paris or the store's copies of them; they aimed to demonstrate the owners' good taste and capture the attention of female shoppers.

By the 1920s, retailers across the United States held fashion shows. Often, these shows were theatrical, presented with narratives, and organized around a theme (e.g. Parisian, Chinese, or Russian). These shows enjoyed huge popularity through mid-century, sometimes attracting thousands of customers and gawkers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, American designers began to hold their own fashion shows in private spaces apart from such retailers. In the early 1990s, however, many in the fashion world began to rethink this strategy. After several mishaps during shows in small, unsafe locations, "[t]he general sentiment was, 'We love fashion but we don't want to die for it,'" recalls Fern Mallis

Fern Mallis

Fern Mallis in Brooklyn, New York, was the Executive Director of 7th on Sixth productions, the Vice President of marketing for International Management Group models, as well as the Vice President of IMG fashion...

, then executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America

Council of Fashion Designers of America

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. is a not-for-profit trade association of over 350 of America’s foremost fashion and accessory designers. As of 2009, Diane von Fürstenberg is the group's President and Steven Kolb is the Executive Director...

. In response to these shows, the New York shows were centralized in Bryant Park

Bryant Park

Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan...

 during fashion week

New York Fashion Week

The semi-annual New York Fashion Week, branded Mercedes-Benz FashionWeek in 2009, is held in February and September of each year in New York City. It is one of four major fashion weeks held around the world .-History:The first New York Fashion Week, then called Press Week, was the world's first...

in late 1993.
Lately from the 2000 to today, fashion shows are usually also filmed and appear on specially assigned television channels or even in documentaries.