Burger, Fried Chicken, Throw Pillow and Soda Companies Are Staging Fashion Shows. It Isn't Easy

We made a list of these unlikely fashion shows and what they are really after. Whatever it is, it isn't selling clothes.

If someone kept a list of "words every company covets," it would include "crossover fashion show" alongside "virtual reality" and "organic." Most of these shows have nothing to do with fashion, and they are not aimed at the big international buyers. Some look so unlike a normal fashion show that the designers have to print "XX Fashion Show" in large letters on the clothes to make the point.

Some of the crossover shows on our list are pure marketing stunts. Other companies have actually launched clothing lines of their own, but we still don't think they seriously expect to sell the clothes. At most, they want to dress themselves up as "young and fashionable."

IKEA: These patterns look better on throw pillows

This September, IKEA put on a fashion show at Milan Fashion Week 2015. It was hard to look away, though some viewers may have squirmed in their seats.

Male models waltzing in each other's arms, hoods shaped like giant bloodshot eyeballs... By the time models walked the runway holding lampshades and throw pillows, nobody was surprised.

At the show, called IKEA FASHION CREW, IKEA and the designers Katie Eary and Martin Bergström presented two themed collections, "Giltig" and "Svärtan," that mix home accessories with clothing. Both go on sale in 2016.

Katie Eary (left) and Martin Bergström (right)

"Svärtan" means "darkness" in Swedish. The Swedish textile designer Martin Bergström drew on material from India for the collection and made it with 25 local design students. Black, gray and white, with minimalist lines, give it a dark, quiet mood.

Never mind the clothes: the home accessories in the same collection look rather good.

They also stick to stone and clay tones and show off the materials and textures of the objects themselves. The range includes low round tables, small round stools, pillows for bedding sets and glass bottles.

The other designer, Katie Eary, likes bright colors and digital prints. A rising London designer known for streetwear-inflected menswear, she once worked with the rapper Kanye West on a Spring/Summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection.

As for the chiffon floral tops, glossy patent-leather bodysuits and 1980s disco-style over-the-knee boots shown this time, they call to mind ZARA and H&M, the fast-fashion brands that have moved into home goods in recent years.

Next to ZARA Home, which already has many stores, IKEA's Milan Fashion Week outing is no more than a toe dipped into clothing.

Some predict that IKEA will work more often with fashion designers to bring more fashion into its products. In places where IKEA has been around for a long time, shoppers no longer feel much urge to go there, and nobody associates IKEA with "fashion." That makes limited editions and designer collaborations all the more important.

This is not IKEA's first brush with the fashion world. This summer it released a line of affordable cork furniture designed by the well-known London designer Ilse Crawford, whose work is usually far from cheap.

IKEA x Ilse Crawford collection

"We expect Katie Eary's designs to catch the eye of people aged 20 to 30, while Ilse Crawford's designs are aimed at another group: people who never thought IKEA could have a fashionable side," said Per Krokstäde, an IKEA business manager.

All in all, IKEA shows no sign of sincerely wanting to make clothes. Its mind is probably still on selling furniture. "Working with fashion designers is something very new," Krokstäde said. "These outstanding designers give us exquisite designs, and our strength is making those products affordable and practical, pushing prices down so that more people can buy them."

KFC: A fast-food fashion show sold on speed

You can do a lot in an hour, such as put on a fashion show. Cutting the fabric, doing the models' makeup and hair, even building the runway and dressing the venue: KFC says an hour is enough. A fashion show normally takes months to prepare.

KFC chose the British designer Katie Eary (the same one who worked with IKEA above) for the challenge. Eary had finished the designs and patterns in advance, but still had one hour to do everything else: set up the venue, style the models and make 13 outfits.

"This was just about the biggest challenge of my career," Eary said. When ten fully dressed models stood in front of her, she burst into tears.

To be fair, she had 40 people sewing for her, not counting 10 makeup artists and 10 hairstylists. Add the crew who set up the venue, and the team came to nearly 100 people.

Watching those scraps of colored fabric get slapped together, you start to regret all the money you have thrown at fast-fashion brands over the years. Even more jarring in the video are the shots of the models eating KFC, because they are so, so thin. BBH London, the agency behind the campaign, has clearly never heard of China's new advertising law!

The box that keeps appearing in the video is KFC's newest low-calorie, healthy product in the UK, the "Ricebox," a rice meal. A new recipe brings the meal down to 500 kcal, about the same as two apples plus some protein.

Oh, so it's quick to eat and won't make you fat. No wonder KFC staged a fashion show to pitch it to the fashion crowd: you can do a lot in an hour, so why waste so much of it eating?

A KFC meal box sat on every seat at the venue

The show has been viewed more than 840,000 times on YouTube.

As part of KFC's UK marketing campaign #PackMoreIntoLunch, Katie Eary and four fashion bloggers also designed packaging for the Ricebox, sold as a limited edition at KFC branches on Coventry Street, Tottenham Court Road, at Victoria Station and elsewhere in London.

McDonald's: Obsessed with wearing itself

It is hard to say what McDonald's makes of KFC's one-hour fashion show challenge.

Just a month before KFC's show, McDonald's UK had launched a YouTube channel, ChannelUs, that invites 16-to-24-year-olds to do fun things, with a catch: they have 72 hours to finish. One of the tasks was "put on a fashion show."

McDonald's hired the YouTube stars Oli White and Gabriella Lindley, who have more than 800,000 followers, to host, yet the video has barely passed 100,000 views on YouTube.

No big-name designers, and clothes that have nothing to do with McDonald's... It looks like an honest show that simply "invites young people to do fun things."

According to the British regulator Ofcom, in 2014 more than 76% of 12-to-15-year-olds and at least 50% of 8-to-11-year-olds in the UK enjoyed watching YouTube. McDonald's clearly didn't want to miss out.

As for a fast-food-themed fashion show, McDonald's would say someone already made one for it. In 2014, the American designer Jeremy Scott showed his first collection as creative director of Moschino at Milan Fashion Week.

He fused the "M" of Moschino with McDonald's red-and-yellow signage and turned the restaurant's fries and soda into stylish accessories. Models wore McDonald's staff "uniforms" and walked out carrying trays, but the trays held a red handbag printed with a yellow "M," not a burger.

The most dedicated effort came this November, when students at the Miami International University of Art & Design were invited to stage a McDonald's-themed fashion show. Every garment was made from McDonald's packaging.

By a rough count, the 24 pieces on the runway used 4,600 sandwich wrappers, 1,770 fry boxes, 600 takeout bags, 500 sandwich boxes, 200 drink cups, 500 ketchup trays and 100 McFlurry cups.

This white gown took 900 sheets of McDonald's white wrapping paper for the skirt and 60 sheets of yellow wrapping paper for the bouquet.

McDonald's has other fashion crossovers on its record. This March it held "McWalk," a McDonald's runway show in Stockholm featuring trench coats, T-shirts, rain boots, bed sheets and other items printed with Big Macs. Members of the Swedish national ski team served as the models.

Coca-Cola: The biggest models and the biggest-name designers

Hiring famous designers to dress up its bottles is nothing new for Coca-Cola, but in 2009 it sent life-size Coke bottles down the runway at Milan Fashion Week for the first time.

At Milan Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2010, Coca-Cola teamed up with the Italian editions of Vogue and Vanity Fair to present "Tribute to Fashion": Coke bottle designs by eight top Italian brands.

When a Coke bottle puts on Missoni's classic knit scarf, Moschino's red polka-dot ruffled skirt or Versace's bohemian maxi dress, you realize the runway belongs to these gifted designers, whether a supermodel or a Coke bottle is standing on it.

The brands: Ferretti, Blumarine, Etro, FENDI, Marni, Missoni, Moschino and Versace.

These "fattest" of "plus-size models" wobbled and swaggered along a specially built runway track. The bottles were later auctioned at Sotheby's, and the proceeds went to victims of the Italian earthquake.

Ford: Clothes made from car seat fabric

This January, Ford showed a line of sustainable clothing at Hong Kong Fashion Week, made from the sustainable materials used in Ford cars and from textile waste.

Ten rising designers from China, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, Sweden and Denmark were invited to take part. Using the sustainable seat fabric from Ford cars, they each made distinctive fashion pieces.

One set was made from earth-toned Ford seat fabric, which is itself made from recycled plastic water bottles.

"We used some of the foam from the back of the seat. Its color and texture recall the stone walls of Hong Kong's Legislative Council building," said Andersson. The piece was sewn entirely by hand and took three hours from sketch to finished garment.

Recycled design, 3D printing, smart components... Car companies' fashion shows never stray far from these, and they always end up putting car parts on the models.

As we reported earlier, Audi worked with the Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht on four outfits themed on the Audi A4, using clothing to show off the car's technology and mechanical beauty.

The Perfume Shop: Truly nothing to do with clothes

The Perfume Shop is a British perfume retailer founded in 1992 and bought by Watsons in 2005.

Its most famous show took place in 2006, inside an embassy in London. Every model performed naked, so the perfumes' pure scent could come through fully and without restraint. The audience was asked to wear blindfolds and concentrate entirely on the "naked scent." They sure know how to have fun.

British actresses Danielle Brent (left) and Antoina Okonma

The Perfume Shop is the UK's second-largest perfume retailer, with 271 stores in the UK and Ireland carrying nearly 130 perfume brands. From the outside, its shopfronts look rather plain.