Fashion Season: the Etienne Russo method of producing original shows

Having learned about the life of a model working in Paris, with China's Liu Wen, and about the work of artistic director Olivier Rousteing for Balmain, Fashion Season focuses its latest report on fashion show producer Etienne Russo.

A kind of fashion “conductor", the founder of the Brussels-based company Villa Eugene, produces about 70 shows every year, attempting to translate the inclinations of each designer into reality. For example, Russo has produced a table that turns into a catwalk for Dries Van Noten, a wall of ice for Y-3, 100 vintage white cars…the list goes on. 

This season, he has been tasked with producing a simple and sophisticated show for Lanvin and an experimental and groundbreaking show for Kenzo. “Now, today, we have social networks. Now, everything has to be so visual and televisual. Before you had time to retouch a little bit. Now, today there are programs—the moment you take a picture, everything is online already,” he says. "Five minutes before the show you say, ‘Oh my God, is this going to work?’ 

It takes six months of work for a 7-minute fashion show, sometimes with "designers who choose to change the music, choreography, or light with just minutes to go."