- Sass Brown

It was the early eighties and I was teenager with dreams of seeing my designs walk the runway. A few of my fellow fashion students and I decided to ban together and produce our very first fashion show. It may sound like the plot from a perky teen television show but we actually pulled it off—quite successfully in fact, considering the many challenges we faced as novices. We were lucky, because at the time a fashion show was a pretty straightforward thing that was ultimately a promotional tool for the clothes. Many years and many shows later runway presentations have become much more about the theater of fashion.

Alexander McQueen

NY Debut Fall/Winter 1996 - Dante

Alexander McQueen's New York debut was a game changing show for me. After several days of working in the 7th on Sixth tents at Bryant Park, I found myself offsite, on the Lower East Side, making my way through the snow and into an abandoned synagogue. Weather was certainly not going to keep this fashionable crowd from what was sure to be the spectacle of the season. Even Anna Wintour was maneuvering her way through the slush, and the dense crowds to secure her front row seat. Everyone seemed to know something special was about to happen here, and it did. McQueen's work was brilliant of course, but the atmosphere in the unexpected and irreverent venue forced the viewer to appreciate the collection on a whole other level. That show set the bar pretty high, and the stakes have continued to escalate ever since, with McQueen more often than not leading the way.

Below are a few of the spectacular shows that have pushed the envelope and pioneered new ways to enthrall an audience.

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 1999 – Untitled

Model and machine make art.

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2006 – Widows of Culloden

Featuring a life size hologram of Kate Moss.

Christian Dior

Christian Dior Spring/Summer 2007

The origami of couture on a grand scale.

Fendi

Fendi Fall/Winter 2007/2008

Karl Lagerfeld created the only fashion show that could be seen from space for Fendi.

Viktor & Rolf

Viktor & Rolf Spring/Summer 2009

Virtual one-woman fashion show online.

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2010 – Plato's Atlantis

Live streamed on the Internet.

Chanel

Chanel Fall/Winter 2010/2011

Chanel clad models walked on water among the melting ice caps.

Chanel

Chanel Spring/Summer 2011

Lagerfeld paid tribute to the classic cult film Last Year at Marienbad in a big way at Chanel.

Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2012/2013

Fashion pulls into the station in style.