There are no missed calls to a show when knocking on the door is a paper, material, virtual invitation that, in most of the times, does not fit in size and format in the narrow slot of the mailbox. Having become rare examples of exclusivity, these invitations are a testament left as a gift to posterity.

The ability of the invitation is often underestimated in announcing the theme, the search for the collection, because it appears to be purely a communication strategy aimed at surprising even before intriguing the recipient. A ticket that can be compared to that of a flight, to that of a trip to an unknown reality, a first step towards check-in in a visual and three-dimensional storytelling aimed at transporting the guest to the access door.

And at the end of the journey, after the lights go out, what remains of that 'ticket to a new world'? Perhaps, that journey does not end in 15 minutes, and it is not the last look that wakes the viewer bringing him back to everyday life, but rather it remains a key to access a memory, as if it were a souvenir of a short trip that demonstrates' 'I was there', when that page of history was written there was witness to the poetic fulfillment.

And so to retrace again the most iconic stages of a journey between New York, Milan and Paris, these are the invitations that have left a mark, even just a fold, on the passport of the imagination.

Balenciaga FW22

The sometimes conflicting relationship between fashion and technology is a theme that is continuously nurtured by mutual support, and Balenciaga with Steve Jobs' '' Think different '' acts as a link between the two worlds. For FW 22 he implements Jobs' reasoning by doing the difference with his invitation: an I-Phone 6 with the place and time of the show engraved on the back. The reference to the techno era comes at a time of '' total identity digitization that passes into a classification of data '' as Demna Gvasalia explains, '' and the telephone is the tool at the service of this dystopian system ''.

Gucci FW20

If the digitalization of communication also invades written paper, then the invitation to Gucci's FW20 is proof of this. A telephone message that reads: “Hi, how are you? Everything is fine. I was thinking that if you were in Milan next Wednesday it would be great if you came here to the Gucci Hub for the fashion show. Let me know. You kiss." A familiar, friendly, almost confidential message that moves away from the formality of the printed word and that approaches a generation that lives on alternating frequencies.

Louis Vuitton FW20

The Louis Vuitton watch, the first in a series of collectibels objects that aligns with the FW20 collection of the men's house led (at the time) by Virgil Abloh. The time marked is always the same: the one indicated by the brand logo, and by the hands that move backwards. The message is not nostalgic but analogical: "A broken clock strikes the right time twice a day".

Brognano SS20

Each show is an unknown world to be accessed with the correct key: this is the case of Brognano who delivers hotel keys to his guests for his SS20. The message is clear, that of preparing for the physical and ideal entry into a collection presented in a suite in Palazzo Bovara. A sealed room that keeps prying eyes away and opens only to temporary guests of this metallic-hued collection.

Gucci Aria

In the end, the ideation of an invitation requires inventiveness and innovation, even that playful touch capable of amusing and enthralling the public. For its Aria collection, Gucci creates a quiz magazine, the Gucciquiz, created with the collaboration of Keesing PRS Italia, where the artistic references that live behind the clothes subsequently presented in a digital version are revealed between gaming and iconography. Hidden messages and information to be deciphered are the goal of the invitation-newspaper, aimed at making the public interact with the brand, bringing it closer to the collection that is explained in the time of a quiz.

Prada FW20 Man

What if the invitation was wearable? Prada has also experimented with this, creating a white pajamas with a black outline that bears the print with all the information relating to the appointment for the FW20 man collection written on it. The choice to create an invitation dress comes close to the goal of making its recipient ambassador of the brand, of making him participate in a story that is told using the '' we '' and no longer the '' you ''. An inclusion that translates into fabric and logo, which does not look to gender but to man.