Paris, Milan & London Fashion Week Will Go Digital This Summer

The fashion industry has truly been turned upside down in 2020, alongside the many other global changes we have faced since COVID-19 hit late December, the result of lockdown has meant that large public gatherings are a big no-no.

The pandemic has changed not only the way we will view Fashion Week but also swept away some of fashion biggest showcases of the year - the Met Gala, the CFDA Awards and the Cannes Film Festival are all to be postponed indefinitely. 

So it’s no surprise when we tell you that Fashion Week is going digital this summer, the current changes have been announced via several different bodies including The British Fashion Council and the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. London Fashion Week will now be online in June, Paris in July & Milan showcasing its first-ever Milan Digital Fashion Week in July also.

All of this can only be a good thing, however - we’ve seen designers use this change to adapt their current business model, with some claiming they are going back to their creative roots now they are finally able to stop with the high pressure, high demand and high garment turnover that Fashion Week demands.

Designers like Jacquemus have also used this time in lockdown to utilize digital for their campaigns, by using applications such as FaceTime to shoot such as their recent stint with Bella Hadid - even Vogue embraced a virtual event with its A Moment With the Met.

The possibilities for creativity here really are endless especially with modern advancements in CGI animation and the budgets these brands have for their shows. There are even brands that are partnering with Microsoft to create new digital platforms specifically for these events.

Carlo Capasa, the president of The Camera Nazionale Della Moda in Italy spoke to Vogue about its collab, “...every one of the 35 or 40 brands showing is free to use their time as the designer wants; you can have a fashion movie, a virtual show, a physical show with a limited audience, something else — whatever the designer feels it's right to do. Every designer is approaching the challenge in a different way, and it's going to be very interesting to see what they do. Plus, we will be showing the womenswear pre-collections for those companies that want to show them too. Designers have been working hard to get collections, most much smaller than usual, ready for July. And maybe sales won't be so strong because this is a difficult time across the world. But we didn't want to miss out entirely a season because a total stop would put a lot of small businesses at risk."

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