A new exhibition probes the role of the catwalk in shaping how collections are revealed and remembered
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
It has been nearly three decades since Tom Ford brought his Spring/Summer 1997 Gucci presentation to a private airplane hangar in Santa Monica for an AIDS Project Los Angeles benefit, which revved up fashion’s ongoing obsession with California. The disparate ways shows are brought to life in houses or on farmland, down escalators or at poolside, forms the backbone of Palm Springs Art Museum’s new exhibition, Fashioning Architecture: What the Runway Borrows From Architecture. The show, curated by executive director Christine Vendredi — former Louis Vuitton global director of art, culture, and heritage — explores the crucial role played by the setting of each 10-minute seasonal presentation of new looks.
“The runway is not just a backdrop. It’s a form of temporary architecture.”
“The runway is not just a backdrop. It’s a form of temporary architecture. It shapes how a collection is revealed, experienced, and remembered,” Vendredi says. Through photographs, video, and recorded interviews with industry producers and insiders, she examines architecture’s role in shaping fashion presentations. For Ford, event producer Carleen Cappelletti recalls a location search that ended near the tarmac where her employer, Merv Griffin, stored his jet. “When a model walked around or near the [hangar] backdrop, how it was lit and shot, the model looked like they were two stories tall,” she says. “It was talked about forever. It was probably what started the arrival of all the other brands from Europe.”
The exhibition examines the fashion show as a spatial event. “Architecture shapes the runway, the seating, and the backstage,” Vendredi says. “It guides movement and perception and plays a central role in how a collection comes into focus.” Former Vuitton event planner Diane Dessertenne de Watrigant recalls Nicolas Ghesquière’s 2016 Cruise show at Bob Hope’s John Lautner house in Palm Springs in one of the show’s recorded conversations. “Nicolas wanted to play with this interplay between inside and outside … The fact that the house was in Palm Springs reinforced the Cruise spirit. The idea of transporting everyone to this oasis in the desert, to experience that architecture.” Through June 7. Architecture and Design Center, Edward Harris Pavilion, 300 S. Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, 760-423-5260; psmuseum.org.
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of C Magazine.
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