Fashion Month: The best show invites from Gucci Grecian masks to Ashish drug prescriptions

When it comes to fashion month, designers know all too well that creativity knows no bounds.

Whether it's enlisting the help of renowned makeup artists Pat McGrath and Charlotte Tilbury,or hairstylists including names such as Sam McKnight and Dior’s go-to expert Guido Palau, the inspiration behind a runway collection can be interpreted in a variety of ways to best showcase a designer's vision.

This may explain then why several designers, including Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele’s and Ashish Gupta of eponymous brand Ashish have threaded the seams of their creative thought process from the outset with their show invitations.

From Grecian masks to drug prescriptions, here are the best show invitations at fashion month autumn/winter 2019.

Ahead of creative director Alessandro Michele’s show, guests received invitations in the form of a papier-mâché mask of the head of Hermaphroditus.

Better yet, the invites were delivered in a museological crate.

Hemaphroditus, the child of mythical Ancient Greek gods Hermes and Aphrodite, is widely believed to have been intersex (a person whose characteristics are not either all typically male or all typically female at birth).

The mythological character is a fitting symbol for the brand. Since Michele joined the fashion house in 2002, he has regularly championed unisex collections that destroy traditional notions of gender.

Last year, he told i-D: “My idea of masculinity is beauty, and if you want to be beautiful you can be beautiful the way you want. It doesn't mean you're not a man or a woman."

An accompanying description to the mask explained the invitation represents “exhibition and concealment, manifestation and protection, vanity and modesty”.

New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman posted a photograph of the invitation on Twitter and wrote in the caption: “Seriously, this is the @gucci show invite. I have to walk around all day carrying a plaster mask, because it does not come close to fitting in — well, anything. Talk about weird.”

Bridget Foley Executive Editor of WWD tweeted: “Gucci’s mask, ‘a cut between visible and invisible’. And a little creepy when the hotel porter brings it to your door. With the show, clarity?”

To mark the late Karl Lagerfeld’s last collection at the Italian fashion brand, Fendi placed cards on attendees’ seats featuring the date the designer passed away (19 February) alongside his signature.

The show notes for the autumn/winter 2019/2020 collection also noted several references to Lagerfeld including pointed shirt collars and the use of his curling “Karligraphy” FF logo that appeared on cabochon buttons and intarsia fur.

Silvia Venturini Fendi, the granddaughter of Fendi's founders and creative director for accessories, menswear, and children, added an additional tribute to the German-born visionary, penning a heart-warming message on the cards.

“The bond between Karl Lagerfeld and Fendi is fashion’s longest love story, one that will continue to touch our lives for years to come,” she wrote.

“I am profoundly saddened by his passing and deeply touched by his constant care and perseverance until the very end.

“When he called just a few days before the shoot, his only thoughts were the richness and beauty of the collection.

“It’s a true testament to his character. He shall be so missed.”

In the lead up to the designer’s autumn/winter 2019 show at London Fashion Week, he sent out invitation in the form of a doctor’s drug prescription.

Prescribing attendees with a dose of sequins for six months, the invitation read: “Sequins 5mm. Warning do not swallow – prolonged use may cause addiction. Common side effects – user may experience feelings of euphoria.”

In lieu of a doctor’s signature, Ashish signed his name with a love heart above the letter ‘I’ in his name.