'It's a sensation': space and affect within the fashion show

This chapter looks back upon key fashion designers of the 1960s onwards, and how they engaged in similar experimental approaches (light, form and body) within their shows, reflecting the new material and societal shifts significant to the era. This analysis will form a background from which to review recent shows by Yohji Yamamoto, Prada and Marc Jacobs, and how they employ aesthetic staging to similar effect, calling to mind the contemporary work of Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer and Olafur Eliasson. The aim of the chapter is to draw attention to these approaches which seek to engage the viewer, their bodies and space in different ways as a means to meditate upon the creative production of haute couture away from the conspicuous consumption of hyper-mediatized fashion and its display. The paper uses Gernot Böhme’s exploration into the production of atmospheres (1993, 2017) to lead into the paper, whereby staging of receptive materials, sound, light and the perceiving body become critical agents within the production and experience of the show.