This morning, designer Misha Nonoo showed her Spring 2016 show at New York Fashion Week, but you didn’t need an invite or even to be in the same time zone to attend. No, it wasn’t another live stream. It was the first “Insta-show" of its kind.
The idea of using Instagram as a show “venue” came about in part because Nonoo reached out to Sheryl Sandberg earlier this year after reading Lean In. “She invited me to this very intimate, all-female dinner at her home in Palo Alto. While I was out there, I went on a tour of Instagram and talked to their team about how so much of a fashion show is about how it lives on,” Nonoo told Refinery29. “After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting — it was supposed to be 30 minutes — I came up with the idea of using one long scroll that’s populated almost like a runway.”
Still confused? You basically turn your phone horizontally once you have the show’s account, @mishanonoo_show, open and swipe left to scroll through the looks. (Check out the video below if you’re still stumped.) It’s very editorial, with a cool tiled effect, since each look takes up nine or so individual Instagram posts. It also results in some awesome detail shots. Speaking of details, the bags and shoes featured in the "Insta-show" (and the video below) are from Nonoo's third collaboration with Aldo Rise.
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Despite the fact that runway shows are incredibly expensive, Nonoo maintains that staging hers on Instagram wasn't a financial move: “It really isn’t about budget-cutting; we really aren’t saving all that much in doing this. I’m still working the same stylists that have the same rates,” Nonoo says. “What’s so nice is that the same budget for 20 models I’d normally have for a show, I got to use on just three models, so I got to work with super-elevated models for this.”
When figuring out how to drive attention to the show given its unconventional format, Nonoo decided to reach out to a variety of influential women — “super-smart, ambitious, real pioneers in their industries,” she says — to wear looks from her Spring 2016 collection and post photos today on their own Instagram accounts. Nonoo then made a donation on behalf of each woman to Women For Women International, a charity that supports female war survivors. “That’s another added cost, but for me, I would really rather spend making a donation to a charity than spend on lighting design, set design — all that kind of stuff you need at a show," Nonoo says. "It’s not that I’m saving costs; I’m trading costs.”
As for next season, anything is fair game. “I happen to have a reputation for being a bit of a wildcard when it comes to shows,” Nonoo says. “A year ago, I had artist Dustin Yellin, dressed as a woman, walk the runway; last season, I had a live orchestra; and this season, it’s an Insta-show. So I don’t really know what the future holds.”