Seeing eight collections a day has a way of focusing the mind, even when your phone keeps pinging with global news events.
At their best, shows are an opportunity for designers to have a say: to put clothes out there the way they want them to be seen, without the mediation of retailers (who decide what to buy) or stylists (who decide what to combine with what) or critics (who pick their own adjectives) or even consumers. They are a thesis statement, a position paper.
Shows are not — and this may sound weird, but it is true — about clothes. They are about ideas; the clothes just express those ideas. Or they should.