MILAN — What are we really looking at when we look at a fashion show?

Images of runway collections are universally available online. Live streams can make it feel as if you’re in the room. But what are we really seeing? How are we supposed to evaluate what we’re seeing?

Runway shows have gotten heavy with ideas. Designers will name-drop art, commerce, capitalism, politics, obscure historic figures — you name it — backstage, and it is usually impossible to make the connection between a designer’s stated inspirations and what you see in the clothes. TikTok teaches us to look at fashion shows for styling ideas or source material for dupes (the extremely online term for cheap knockoffs). We are encouraged to scour through looks for red-carpet contenders. Or we look to runways to give us the next “trend” — which is really just a shorthand these days for “Can you believe some people are actually wearing this?”