The Best Of Fashion Week Invites

Brands go the extra mile to send invitations for their runway shows. It’s no longer just a beautiful enveloped invitation; some brands include other goodies. Take for example, Gucci. For its July presentation, the luxury brand sent out boxes of organic, locally sourced fruits and vegetables to a select number of fashion-industry professionals and people who would see the collection in person. This instance was an early example of brands finding wild and creative ways to send show invites. The Cut lists the best (and frankly, the wildest) show invites brands have sent for its latest fashion shows:

When New York Fashion Week began in March, more packages started going out. In addition to images and information about the collection, some of them included fabric swatches and hardware, which was helpful in bringing the clothes to life while looking at two-dimensional images.

During Paris Fashion Week, brands got a little more intellectual, a little more high-concept. Thom Browne sent a puzzle, for example, which instantly stumped me. Miu Miu sent a notepad and pencil. MM6 Maison Margiela sent — I’m not even kidding — a box with an empty tin can and string in it, with instructions like: “Hold the tin can to your ear and listen to the sea … Put the can on your head. Make it a cute hat … Name it.” My roommate, not a fashion person, was especially perplexed by this one.

The invite you’ve probably seen the most on social media is the Loewe “show on the wall.” It followed the brand’s “show in a box,” which was sent out for its men’s collection over the summer, and included paper dolls, plus a vinyl record that played the sounds of the brand’s Spanish factory. The “show on the wall,” meanwhile, came with a roll of wallpaper designed by Anthea Hamilton; a Loewe-branded paintbrush, scissors, and tool bag; and some scented ceramic, in case you actually wanted to plaster it all over your home. (Some people actually did.)