Paris Dept. Store To Stage World’s Largest Fashion Show

by Julia Rubin | 11:27 am, September 26th, 2010

Fashion shows comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some are grand and awesome, while some are kind of depressing. Mostly though, holding a fashion show is a really cool way for a designer to express his or her vision. Fashion weeks happen in cities all over the globe, but aspiring designers dream of showing in one of the big four: New York, London, Milan or Paris. And let us tell you — that is no easy feat.

Recognizing this (and also owing to the popularity of street style), Paris’s Galleries Lafayette department store decided to put on what could be the world’s biggest fashion show. 10,000 people will be modeling their own looks in shows in Paris, Berlin and 50 cities in France. Galleries Lafayette went the digital route in selecting participants, having people post pictures of their looks to the store’s website (shades of Style Sheets!). 700 finalists were chosen to show at their flagship store in Paris next Thursday.

Smaller shows will be held in Berlin that same day, and across France on Saturday. More than 10,000 people have registered to participate, and it will prove to be a diverse event with shows split into themes and featuring models of all ages. Marketing director of Galeries Lafayette Anne-Marie Gaultier had this to say about the project:

We want to play on diversity. We are not looking for the next Elite model — we want people to express their vision of fashion and draw their inspiration from the street.

If the show goes according to plan, it could beat the Guinness record for the world’s biggest fashion show. The current record-holding show involved 250 models walking runways at the same time in 10 different locations.

[via The Independent]

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