For designers, appearances are always a matter of concern, but for Lagerfeld -- at this crucial moment in his professional life -- they are the most essential part of his story.
Unlike the latter's clean shaven and designer-suited appearance, Vince dresses in jeans and a T-shirt, and occupies a paired-down, almost basic, office in Stroud, deep in the English countryside.
Common threads connect the design-related Pacific Standard Time exhibitions, with many designers making appearances in more than one show.
Hussein Chalayan, the designer whose dour appearance lends him the air of fashion's conscience, said after his show last Thursday, that he had been "terribly affected by what is going on".
François Lesage, the couture embroider, remembered the designer's first appearance at the house of Patou — and said of the new Lacroix ease, calm and accessibility: "Why couldn't he have done it earlier?" Danielle Steel, the romance novelist and a loyal client, said simply: "So sad".
Although Mr. Dalmau isn't the only designer who makes appearances in stores, his habit of autographing his T-shirts has proved irresistible.
The designer's non-appearance at the previous night's white-tie V&A gala, held to open the museum's new exhibition of classic couture, suggested that he had been feeling the pressure, but he rose to the occasion with dresses that managed to look both delicate and hot-blooded, like ballerina costumes for a particularly passionate pas de deux.
Customers line up for the designer's personal appearances, and many scour the country for every T-shirt he has ever created -- customers like Julieana Choy, 25, an office manager in Manhattan who lives in Fairfield, N.J., and has over 200 Custo Barcelona items.
Days after the Chanel suit hit the runway in Paris, a 3D-printed vest designed by Koerner and Berlin-based designer Marina Hoermanseder made an appearance at Berlin Fashion Week.
Yet the real star of this project is Tom Ford, a man whose name is already a money-spinning designer brand and whose appearance as director has attracted the most critical attention.
