[This is the weekly Styles newsletter. You can sign up for “Wait —” right here.]
We usually cover fashion with our fairly serious hats on — it’s an enormous, multi-gazillion-dollar business, and also, fashion is real, because we all have to put pants and/or culottes on in the morning. But the fashion world also instigates some of our funniest dramas.
At the Chanel show, which is far and away one of the most prominent shows of the recent cycle of fashion shows that just ended, a French YouTube prankster climbed up on the catwalk and joined the show. She was, fortunately, Chanel clad. She told us she did it because it was funny, and because we all take ourselves too dang seriously. (You can see video of the event here on our Instagram.)
The viewers (that would be all of us!) of this prank seem quite sternly divided! A debate is truly raging on our Instagram. Many think that, because fashion is both art and commerce, and because months and months of work go into a 10-minute fashion show, it should be treated with more respect. If this crasher has commentary to add, this argument goes, she should put on her own fashion show.
Another argument, which has some traction, is that the media (hi!) shouldn’t encourage people like her by giving them attention. I’m really sympathetic to this argument. (To be fair to us, in this case, we would have, and did, cover the Chanel show even if it had no drama.)
Much of the mainstream media has taken some of this idea to heart, usually in more serious matters. We often decline to give attention to murderers and extremists, for example. We’re more cautious in discussing death by suicide, as the science around suicide contagion continues to build.
But what about the merely wild and wacky? Are we encouraging streakers and crashers, clowns and creeps, when we cover their antics? Can we ever resist a man biting a dog? (Please do not bite dogs.)
I honestly have made peace with the fact that I cannot resist the appeal. Yes, it’s rude and disrespectful to crash a show. But chaos is the spice of life! It’s easy to look at each day as a problem to solve. All of us are rats mazing to work on the commuter train, off to find that Cheddar.
But what if this is all a jungle gym and we should be making up better games?
