Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts.
Runway shows are a make-or-break moment for burgeoning designer brands. Fronting the cost is part of the challenge.
Increasing costs of production, economic and political uncertainty, and an overall decline in purchasing power across key markets have led to more considerations over the value of putting on a fashion show in 2024. And as young labels mature, they’re feeling pressure to scale up their shows, even amid a challenging wholesale environment. It all starts to add up — in recent years, young designers have had to account for increasing venue costs (on average shooting up 20 per cent after the Covid-19 pandemic) amid a densely packed schedule, high casting budgets and many costly layers of production and set design, considering how to best utilise their given time slot, and make their key audience believe the messaging of their collection.
Vogue Business asked scores of fashion brands across the big four cities to share details on the cost of their shows. And while the majority of brands declined to comment, two labels in Milan and Paris did break down what a runway show really costs for a burgeoning brand in 2024.
Location, location, location
“When we first started out, we truly didn’t know how much it really costs to put on a show,” says Bowen, one half of the London-based design duo Jordanluca, who presented their co-ed collection during Milan men’s fashion week. “When you research online, Google spits out anything from £15,000 to £25 million for huge productions like the Victoria’s Secret show.” Jordanluca, known for its kink-friendly and sultry collections, originally started out showing across London Fashion Week before moving to the Milan schedule after the Covid-19 pandemic for Autumn/Winter 2022.
Luca Marchetto, the other half of the design duo, says that the brand’s first two shows had modest budgets. The first, put on for AW21 with no set design, totalled around £60,000. The second came at roughly £80,000, largely because of its intricate set design in a car scrapyard outside of London, towering in a sculptural-like manner over the show space. “That was the moment we really started to see how much it costs to do things properly.”
Jordanluca productions nowadays easily reach four times their early budgets. “When we started thinking about moving our shows from London to the Milan menswear schedule, we quickly realised that in order to show there, all costs would jump to five times more, and even that is roughly five times less than what it would mean for us to show in Paris, largely because of the cost of venues across Milan and Paris, and the caveat of flying out and accommodating our entire staff and team, which are all based in London, for up to 10 days before the show.”
Jordanluca shows have grown exponentially in size and concept, an expectation for young brands as they mature. Their latest show, staged against a Milanese studio in the outskirts, showcased 57 co-ed looks, extending an embellished play on contradictions between underground subcultures and fragile queer femininity — an undertaking of much bigger proportions in cast and production. “Our latest show that we presented back in June this year had a budget of roughly £200,000, and it wasn’t even our most expensive one,” Marchetto adds. The biggest cost has always been production and venue. For the SS25 season, this totalled £80,000. “We have a very specific vision of where and how we want to show, and even when we want to find a venue that gives off a dark and dingy vibe, we still have to install the entire infrastructure, which means supplying our own power and water essentials, each generator costing us £16,000 each.”
Imruh Asha, Dazed fashion director and stylist, launched Paris-based brand Zomer alongside business partner Danial Aitouganov in September 2023 with an off-schedule show for SS24. “When you are outside of the schedule, you can slightly play by your own rules. We had a very limited budget, so we had to pull in a lot of favours in order to create our show,” Asha explains. Both he and Aitouganov had established fashion careers before Zomer, therefore the power of networking helped them to keep their costs down.
After Zomer’s debut, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode ultimately welcomed them to become part of the official schedule. “Becoming part of the official schedule was a huge honour for us. We never thought we would do it after just one season, however, expanding quickly comes with its own set of challenges,” adds Aitouganov. Zomer’s overall costs have increased by over 40 per cent, mainly due to venue fees. For their breakdown of expenses, an intricate show space and casting eat up around 60 per cent of the budget, leaving little room of 20 per cent for intricate production costs and set design as they aim to embrace and maximise what they are working with, as location is everything across a hectic Paris schedule. “We need to account for showing in central locations in order for our guests, press and buyers to be able to make the next show on the schedule, Aitouganov says. “Venues in Paris increase their rates up to 300 per cent during show season, as the demand becomes astronomical.”
The cost of conveying a character
The other component that eats away at their budget? “Casting. We always invest a big chunk of our budget — about 20 per cent — to find the exact model, energy and walk for our looks. As we are showing a co-ed collection during a menswear season, we have to fly in and accommodate most of our womenswear models we work with,” says Jordanluca’s Bowen.
As the Jordanluca muse shifts each season, the designers prioritise casting to convey the message. “Putting on a show is integral to fashion because it is what separates you from just making clothes,” he adds. “In my experience, you can always feel when a model is not appropriate for the look they are in. As a designer, you need to show exactly who your woman or man is, as the right energy always translates therefore if someone is right for us, we would fly them out from anywhere in the world, which is why casting is an ever bigger part of our budgets each season.”
“Oftentimes when I am at a show, and I see some of the well-established models, I often think that each step on the catwalk is in the thousands of euros,” smirks Zomer’s Asha. “We also had to work with a limited number of models, therefore, we would pay around 20 models but still show close to 30 looks and have changes, as this is how you keep your casting costs in place.”
Showing in Paris also gave Zomer an advantage of being able to work with talent that is already in town, however, it does not loosen pressure over budgeting. “As we all know, Paris womenswear models are some of the highest paid in the world, and each season, costs rise more. A year ago, each model would cost us approximately between €700-900 per model, now, we are going into ranges of €1,300-1,500.” Zomer often tries to secure partnerships with model agencies, in order to get the best rate by booking groups of models.
So how can brands pay for it?
Zomer and Jordanluca are just two brands, but they represent the whole system. As reported by GQ in 2023, who investigated further into show costs across NYFW, Peter Do expresses an easy estimation of a minimum of $300,000 altogether, while Collina Strada’s estimations reach upwards from $400,000 on the final invoice. And for many young brands, a show is an important show of strength. “If you decide not to show one season and try something new, it often can send a smoke signal to buyers and editors who might think you are in trouble. That can easily escalate and bring back a negative domino effect, pulling the rug from under you,” Marchetto says.
Fashion brands have always partnered with adjacent lifestyle, alcohol, and beauty brands in order to subsidise costs. However, this season, independent designers are reaching for increasingly unconventional partnerships to account for rising costs and make sure they can keep going. New York Fashion Week saw an explosion of partnerships with subscriber-based platforms like OnlyFans sponsoring New York-based Elena Velez and Tinder supporting Area. While in London, Jaguar sponsored rising star Aaron Esh. “I think a show is integral to showcasing your vision — you are able to see the casting, the way the fabrics move, the attitude of your person,” Esh says. “Partnerships have to make sense, and it goes beyond money. You have to both see creativity in the same way and support each other.”
Many of the designers who cut sponsorship deals this season are unable to share runway costs with Vogue Business as to not reveal the details of their sponsorship deals. At Luar, this season witnessed a partnership in the form of a special collaboration with American Express, as the designer debuted his signature Ana bag in three exclusive colourways and signature Amex embellished charms to match their cardholder’s credit cards. For Raul Lopez, his partnerships have to align fully with supporters who have seen his vision from the beginning. “Our brand sponsors, like Mac Cosmetics, have supported us from the very beginning. We are becoming smarter in budgeting our collection development and show costs, but we firmly believe in the power of our shows.” His fashion spectacles often draw big-ticket celebrities like Beyoncé and Madonna, providing an increasingly bigger media value and social impact onto his brand awareness and wider audience.
As for Jordanluca, whose collections have seen collaborations with British sportswear brand Lonsdale, their stance on partnering up is that it has to align 100 per cent with the ethos. “You can always tell if a partnership is one-sided, and can become dangerous for a brand’s positioning if it’s not correct.” For Zomer, they see it as an extension of lifestyle. “Collaboration has to be about universe-building beyond clothing. As a young brand, we have been incredibly lucky to have full freedom in our collaborations, like our longstanding partnership with Finnish shoe maker Karhu, where we can come in and have full control in redesign and rollout. It has to always go beyond just one brand’s universe.”
In the end, despite the increasing hurdles of accommodating expanding costs, designers continue to make fashion shows work and represent a climax of world-building and culture. “For now, the key is to keep investing,” says Jordan Bowen. “We should always strive to improve the process of showing, but essentially, the impact of a show is miles ahead from the impact of a presentation or any other form, and that culture building is what makes it worth it.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
Why sophomore shows are just as important as designer debuts
Why Telfar’s new leather bag isn’t made for Instagram
‘Hyper-feminine, hyper-functional’: Inside Cecilie Bahnsen’s new collab with The North Face
