Michael Clark

The culture of fashion: how the catwalk soundtrack got its groove



Michael Clark Bodymap fashion show - photograph by Robert Rosen courtesy BodyMap

Models! Clothes! Music! Fashion show soundtracks are increasingly part of shaping a brand’s identity. And in the digital era they’re about to become even more important…

The year was 2017. Kim Jones was menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton. At the appointed hour, his first models sloped onto the Paris runway in iterations of slouchy 80s overcoats, baggy flannel trousers and Basquiat-style suits with untucked shirts. Then the kicker – internet-breaking Speedy holdalls emblazoned with red-and-white Supreme logos. And to add the crucial fourth musical dimension: Honey Dijon’s mix of Sound Factory bangers including Chez Damier’s Can You Feel It (MK Dub), completing the downtown New York nostalgia trip.

Since then, other notable catwalk soundtracks have included LaQuan Smith’s AW23 Ballroom fabulosity-fest; Benji B’s eerie David Lynch-like Chromatics mix for Jil Sander SS25 and Saint Laurent’s long-term music collaboration with DJ SebastiAn – so integral to the brand, they packaged it as a box set and sold it in Saint Laurent stores. (more…)



Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer at The Barbican



Michael Clark retrospective, The Barbican 2020
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer at The Barbican looks amazing. Frieze has a deep dive on the choreographer’s retrospective (read it here), and you’ll want to get in early with your ticket booking – social distancing an’ all that…

I’ve already been trawling YouTube and found the incredible video that Frieze writer Brian Dillon references of Clark’s dancing to T Rex’s Cosmic Dancer on an Italian TV show. (more…)