Fashion is an industry that’s often mislabelled. To a cutting, outside eye, it is vacuous and hollow – to work in fashion is, supposedly, to sell your soul to the devil for a Prada bag and pair of pointed-toe heels. However, quite a different truth is apparent for those soul-sellers among us who nevertheless decide to pursue a career in it. Working in fashion, and achieving notable success, means harbouring an unadulterated love for design and creativity, threading together a staunch community with this at its centre.

Although not without fault, fashion is an industry comprised of people who have a deep appreciation for the talents of others, starting first and foremost with those who create the clothes. Behind every great figure isa collection, created by a designer who shares that same irreverent love for fashion’s ability to transform, evoke and energise. Experiencing one of those collections means a seed becomes firmly planted, destined to grow and flourish with the turn of each scheduled – and, increasingly, unscheduled – season. Sometimes this occurs with a collection that will skyrocket the trajectory of a designer’s career and cement their personal impact on the industry. At other times it hits a more personal note, with a particular design element perhaps reminding the onlooker of a time or person that was personally special to them. Ask a fashion obsessive what runway show has had a long-lasting impact on them and the answers will range widely, with each imparting a unique perspective influenced by personal taste, career and emotion. As such, driven by our fervent curiosity and this issue’s focus on the designers who dared to dream, we’ve done just that. Warning – valuable tales of inspiration lie ahead.

ALEXANDER FURY, FASHION FEATURES DIRECTOR, ANOTHER, AND MENSWEAR CRITIC, FINANCIAL TIMES

“John Galliano, AW94. A collection entirely made in black fabric, on a wing and a prayer, pulled together on a shoestring, with everyone at the absolute top of their game working for free for the love of pure creativity. There’s something that constantly astounds me about this fashion show: how people’s passion can overcome obstacles and create something that transcends its component parts to become a greater whole. Plus, the stories around it abound: of [art collector] São Schlumberger surrendering her ramshackle mansion asa venue after a lunch of Portuguese sardines; of Galliano and Amanda Harlech gathering leaves from Paris parks to scatter through the rooms; of the loaned diamonds from every great jeweller of the Place Vendôme – none realising the others were involved – so the security guards outnumbered hair, make-up, dressers and models combined. And, at its core, the story of a bunch of the greatest creatives fashion has ever seen, and the most beautiful women in the world, all making magic.”

ANGELO FLACCAVENTO, WRITER

“I have a thing for white and for elongation. Verticality gets me, no matter what. A ghostly whiteout is my idea of bliss. I have been obsessed with, Comme des Garçons SS94, with its whitewashed draping and clay-sculpted hair, since it first came out. What strikes me, still, about this show and collection is the historical inspiration. The drapes owe a lot to classical sculpture, but also to the aristocratic ladies who, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire, wore water-drenched muslin togas in order to resemble exactly those sculptures, devoid of any nostalgic feeling. Plimsolls and trainers set the tone of this liquid show, which ended with a series of dresses worn with white, feathered headpieces – a nod, in my opinion, to [visual artist] Rebecca Horn’s Feather Fingers [1972] and Cockatoo Mask [1973] – and accompanied by a campaign shot by and featuring Cindy Sherman. CDG SS94 is an epitome of levity and gravitas so pure and vibrant it reverberates in my mind to this day.”

ANNA TREVELYAN, STYLIST

“It’s an impossibly stressful task to choose one runway show that stays with you forever. Dior by Galliano SS04, every Lee Alexander McQueen show and every Mugler show in the ’90s are all insanely memorable shows that stay in my mind. But I think for me the most exciting shows were the ones I got to sneak into as an intern many years ago. I was enthralled by the whole process. If I had to choose one, let’s say Christopher Kane, SS07. I think it was his first proper show and collection, and everyone was raving about him. I loved all the sexy neon mini dresses, bodycon rave looks and frilly details. It was the luxury version of exactly how I wanted to look. I felt very honoured to be there at the first show of this ‘next big thing’ designer. Christopher, of course, went on to have a hugely successful career, but I will always remember those mini neon dresses.”

KAREN BINNS, STYLIST

“The World’s End, SS82. After first seeing the coverage of the 1981 ‘Pirates Collection’ of Vivienne Westwood I was inspired; living in Brooklyn, I felt I was in the wrong place. Then seeing the 1982 World’s End Collection, that did it! I quit my job at the bank, changed my hair into a mohawk and became a New Romantic/punk/new waver in minutes. I was already halfway there asa ska girl, but Vivienne pushed me into a full-on new Karen! It allowed me to embody a consistent, directional and modern aesthetic – never wacky or commercially current, but with depth and meaning to whomever I portrayed myself. It’s her philosophy that has stayed with me till now. It’s not just about being popularly current and in line with what everyone is doing. That’s not epic, it’s forgotten in seconds. It’s about reinvention into the better and more open you… with a perception of purpose! That gives out all of the right messages within simple good taste. 1+1 is elementary – always do it with the attitude of conviction.”

ALASTAIR MCKIMM, STYLIST AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR

“That’s easy. Raf Simons, SS98 ‘Black Palms’ collection. My favourite of all time. Raf’s work struck a chord with me that opened the door and gave me permission to have a place in this industry. The effortlessly cool ‘Black Palms’ collection is a cinematic triumph.”

STAVROS KARELIS, FOUNDER AND BUYING DIRECTOR AT MACHINE-A

“The show that really had the biggest impact for me was Martine Rose AW17 at Seven Sisters Market. It was her return after almost four years without showing and she changed the rules of what a traditional show means. From a location perspective, that took everyone out of their ‘comfort zone 1’ to Tottenham at a location which was way more than a place; it was about culture and society. It was about an honest andreal approach of the genius that Martine is, to present her world as it is. Nothing was set-designed, it was all real and genuine, from the local vendors handing out food and drinks to the barbershops and nail salons. As soon you arrived you felt that you were part of something bigger, of something substantial, of a realLondon community. And then the show began: it was everything that we know and love about Martine today.Incredible tailoring, subversive, masculine and feminine elements, powerful and intelligent. The juxtaposition between those elements and the surroundings was what made this show so memorable and has hugely inspired me since then. Martine has played by her own rules for so long. That is a form of liberation and an honest approach to everything. She sees fashion as culture and that made me understand fashion in a very different context and apply this in our own way at Machine-A. Until that point, I had considered Martine to be a great designer, one of the best of her generation. But since then, I’ve considered her a cultural creator.”

MANDI LENNARD, FOUNDER OF MANDI’S BASEMENT

“As Four, SS00. I remember going to an As Four show entitled Puppen Couture at the Purple Institute in Paris, where we had assembled in an open courtyard [and were] waiting to enter a supposed show space. The sheer magic upon entering, bearing witness to a huge raised platform upon which a multitude of modernist automatons, dressed in miniature versions of the new collection, haphazardly criss-crossed its surface to a Wagner soundtrack. Yet, if we hadn’t rushed forward to catch them as they reached its edge and redirected them to safety, they would have crashed to the cobblestones beneath. Clever, I thought. The beauty of this spectacle was the organic and curvilinear aesthetic of the collection, audacious and brutal in its minimalism. I thought [the founders of As Four] Adi Gil, Angela Donhauser, Gabi Asfour and Kai Kühne were the coolest creatures on earth. I’d previously been aware of As Four as they were sold in my friends’ store Kokon To Zai in London, where I was intrigued by their signature trio of metallic leather shoulder bags in graduating sizes, which you wore together sitting just inside the underarm. This was my kind of show, yet it wasn’t a show. It was an art show, firmly aligned with the designers’ downtown New York creative hero status.”

ANDERS CHRISTIAN MADSEN, CONSULTANT, WRITER AND FASHION CRITIC AT BRITISH VOGUE

“Maison Margiela’s Artisanal, AW18. Shows usually become important to me for formative or emotional reasons. This one stayed with me for another reason. I remember Bono’s voice [on U2’s cover of ‘Unchained Melody’] booming through the Maison Margiela convent in Rue Saint-Maur – “I hunger for your touch, I need your love, godspeed your love to me” – as John Galliano’s ‘neo-digital nomads’ rolled out one by one in their ‘nomadic glamour’. [These were] haute couture garments made of sharply sliced foam, quilted bin-liners and integrated fabric rolls that had travelled around the body and transformed into clothes I could never have imagined: a sensory overload of hyper-tactile, euphorically coloured, filtered, layered, fantastical creations that you just couldn’t look at enough. A single outfit description took up 15 lines in the show notes. I had never seen anything like it, and nothing could be more memorable than that. That summer, Virgil Abloh said he had tried to buy the whole collection. “Galliano has the best in show this year. The rest of us have to decide what represents our now,” he texted me. I wasn’t the only one who felt it.”

ELLA DROR, FOUNDER OF ELLA DROR PR

“It’s so hard to pick! But I’ll never forget Nasir Mazhar, SS15 – this show was and will always be an inspiration for many aspiring and established designers. Even though Nasir no longer shows full runway collections you can still see and feel his influence at fashion shows.”

LUCIEN PAGES, FOUNDER LUCIEN PAGES COMMUNICATIONS

“Adam Kimmel, AW10. This image is a big reference in my career as Adam was my first client and we did many amazing things together. This particular show was absolutely stunning and unique. The first time in my mind that fashion and art went so far into a fusion. Adam is a fan of [the American visual artist] George Condo and had the idea to celebrate him through an imaginary casino, a passion of Condo’s. Putting the famous characters from Condo’s paintings inside decor represents a fantasy of the artist. We sourced casting, games tables, even curtains. It was real excitement. It was not a fashion show, it was an art piece, a moment that I will cherish all my life. It’s about how designer inspiration can go into places you don’t expect!”

@10magazineaustralia