Would Barbie be the highest-grossing film of 2023 had it not been for the Barbie press tour? It’s hard to know, but we have our suspicions. The Greta Gerwig–directed movie became a global phenomenon at least in part because of its brilliant marketing, and fashion found itself the eye of the hurricane. There is no Barbiecore without Margot Robbie’s Barbie-esque red-carpet outfits.
Barbie was one of the last films to get the full-court press before the SAG-AFTRA strikes kicked off in late July. Since then, much has been written about how the strikes are affecting fashion: No red carpets mean no opportunity to seed new collections; strict picket lines mean no glossy interviews pumping up new projects; and no press tours mean stylists have less work. Overall, fashion has fewer opportunities to be visible. But what about Fashion Week?
The expectation is that celebrities will show up in droves. “They have nothing else to do, after all,” a colleague said half-jokingly. It’s not untrue. This time of year, Hollywood’s shiniest stars would either be filming new projects or swanning around Venice to promote upcoming releases at the film festival there. Emma Stone would likely be sporting custom Louis Vuitton at the premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things. Austin Butler would be at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado to boost The Bikeriders in a YSL Perfecto leather jacket. And Zendaya would be gearing up for a press tour for Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers alongside Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist had the film’s release not been moved to next year. Ditto for Dune: Part Two, which would have given the world a second taste of the enchanting duo that is Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet had its release not been pushed as well.
Without all those opportunities, attending Fashion Week is the perfect non-press appearance. Celebrities get to be visible and look good—maybe even go viral like Anne Hathaway at Michael Kors’s fall 2023 show earlier this year—without having to do interviews, discuss current projects, or effectively cross picket lines.
But Fashion Week is not a surrogate for the red carpet. “I don’t think it’s a replacement for red carpet,” said Rachna Shah, partner and managing director of media relations and digital at the public-relations firm KCD. “It’s more that designers and celebrities have an opportunity to support each other’s work. The partnerships between brands and celebrities go beyond the red carpet.” Still, Shah and her team—who are working on shows including Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, and Tory Burch in New York and Tom Ford in Milan—have noticed an uptick in celebrity interest in attending the collections. “The talent is more available,” said Shah, noting that even though September tends to be a more celebrity-heavy season, given that it doesn’t overlap with awards shows as much, “there’s a lot of requests coming our way and a lot of conversations happening.” And it’s not just brand ambassadors, “it’s genuine fashion lovers who are excited to be in town and experience the fashion up close,” she said.
The way Shah sees it, this Fashion Week is more about what celebrities can do and less about what they can’t. “It’s an exciting time for New York Fashion Week in particular because fashion and Hollywood have always been intertwined, and the fact that so many talents are able to come support brands and designers is great,” she said, teasing that we will “see some surprises.”
On the flip side, there’s media coverage and costly fees for brands to consider. Without production companies paying for press tours, the styling and glam fees incurred with showgoing are now expected to be footed by the brands. As a different publicist—who asked to remain anonymous—said it’s one thing for brands to pay for glam and a black car for their celebrity guests, but it’s a different ball game to ask them to cover styling fees. The talent or the studio usually pays for stylists. With nothing to promote, studios are not footing the bill, so talent is looking for brands to support their appearances by subsidizing this cost. This puts a particular strain on smaller brands, whose budgets are by default tighter.
This is likely why the PR maven Lucien Pagès has not seen an uptick in requests from actors this season—at least not yet. Pagès and his team work with some of fashion’s buzziest, albeit smaller, labels, including Diotima and Area in New York and Courrèges and Schiaparelli in Paris. “This is where it’s important to divide celebrities into demographics,” he said. “Musicians and influential people, yes, but when it comes to actors and actresses, not so much,” he said of the way his seating charts are starting to shape up.
Pagès’s primary hesitation at the moment is whether Hollywood stars will attend shows amid the strikes and risk possible negative attention. “They have to be mindful of public perception,” he said. “They don’t want to appear insensitive, and the industry does not want to be just ‘clueless fashion.’” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher was called out for attending Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda celebrations in Puglia, Italy, while contract negotiations were ramping up in July. Though she explained that it was a contractual obligation and work as an ambassador for the brand, the optics were difficult for her.
It’s worth pointing out, said Pagès, that the strikes affect primarily Hollywood and American talent. “You will still see British and French actresses on the front row, so the public will likely not notice if Hollywood is missing, unlike at a film festival like Venice, where you wonder where they are,” he said. There will be no shortage of talent at the shows, but whether this shapes up to be the Hollywood takeover many are anticipating remains to be seen.
Fashion month is a prime time for celebrities to do non-press appearances, but they’ll have to tread carefully. The relationship between fashion and entertainment is only growing stronger, and while this is an opportunity for that bond to strengthen, both brands and celebrities will want to avoid backlash. American actors—including Sydney Sweeney, Lili Reinhart, and Camila Mendez—who were in Venice this weekend for Giorgio Armani’s One Night Only event (but not to promote films at the festival) may be a harbinger for what’s to come this fashion month. But as Pagès puts it: “New York will be the test. If they show up there and there is no backlash, they will come in waves to Paris.”
