The Fashion Show as a Festival of Gesamtkunstwerk

Abstract

Fashion affects all areas of individual and social life, transcending mere clothing. Hence it can serve as the subject of technical, historical, artistic, and philosophical reflection. The subject of the present paper encompasses the philosophy and aesthetics of a fashion show – especially several of Karl Lagerfeld’s last projects, which can be treated as total works of art uniting several different artistic fields within their frameworks. The idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art, is applied nowadays to almost every multimedia phenomenon. Such widespread use of this term seems arbitrary; nevertheless, all works related to multimedia pop culture can be called total works of art. This applies to music concerts from the 1960s, such as those of the Beatles, and contemporary theater and music performances, such as those of Lady Gaga.