You don't have to be famous, rich, or even part of the industry to get a front row seat at one of the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shows. Designer Marc Bouwer has decided to replace a live runway show with a pre-produced virtual one online.

“We're putting it into Fashion Week as a slot like a regular show,” says Bouwer. “An invitation is sent out. The show is streamed live at one particular time. All the editors, stylists, buyers, get an invitation to the show.”

Bouwer says his two main motivations are better exposure during a week that's very much about hard-fought competition for attention and the lower price tag.

“Sometimes there's like 40 shows a day. They cost so much money to produce and no matter how good a relationship you have with people, sometimes they just can't physically make it there,” says Bouwer. “You lose things and you spend all this money to get your brand across and sometimes you just don't get the exposure, the bang for your buck that you really want to get. There's nothing like a live concert or experience, but in today’s economic climate it just makes sense to do this. It costs less than half the price.”

Bouwer says not only does it save him money, but doing it this way saves he and his staff from having to deal with much of the madness and mayhem typically associated with Fashion Week.

“Sometimes we use up to 50 models for a show – it's a huge hair and makeup team, a huge expense,” says Bouwer. “Sometimes the models are running from show to show, because everyone wants to use the best, the top models. Sometimes they don't even show up because their shows ran so late. There's just way too much packed into a small amount of time.”

Bouwer says he expects other designers to watch and judge what he's doing and eventually follow suit. His show will stream online at noon on September 8th on MarcBouwer.com, which you will still be able to watch then, or archived, even if you aren't on the official invitee list.