On Friday night Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini-Fendi hosted the first ever fashion show on the Great Wall of China. 500 guests climbed the steep stone steps to the wall to watch the amazing show. Guests included Thandie Newton, Ziyi Zhang, Kate Bosworth and James Rousseau. "I think it's the first fashion show visible from the moon," Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The incredibly ambitious project highlights the growing importance of China as a place where “things are happening”. The show was not linked to any boutique openings although China can already boast ten Fendi stores.
[source:WWD, image:getty]
88 Models who were wearing a mixture of new items and clothes from Spring/Summer 08 walked along an 88 meter runway (the number ‘8’ connotes prosperity in China.) The 4,000 mile long wall was perfect for the show. Lagerfeld commented, “In fact, this wall was built like a runway...Can you imagine the physical difficulty in building something like this in those days?"
Talk has already moved on to the next large scale Fendi event. Jokes were made about taking the Virgin shuttle, "'Nothing is impossible' is the Fendi motto," Venturini-Fendi joked, "I told Michael, 'You should get in touch with Richard Branson and book some space on the shuttle.'"