From New York to Paris, via London and Milan, usually Fashion Weeks devoted to women’s ready-to-wear fashion shows are linked on the catwalks but the health crisis has forced these fashion weeks to adapt their calendar. This season, the presentations for fall-winter 2021-22 will mostly be virtual. Here is the program.
New York, February 14-17
Most of the fashion week’s greats New York will not present their collection from February 14 to 17 ; some having chosen an off-calendar date including elsewhere than in the United States, while others have not yet announced anything. Among the big names in American fashion, only Tom Ford will present his show, according to the schedule of American Fashion Union, the CFDA, of which the designer of Texan origin is the president. Among the absent, heavyweights like Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Pierre Moss or Tory Burch.
Unlike Paris Fashion Week, which is subject to a ban on organizing public events, New York has the possibility of offering parades or presentations but the CFDA advised its members to go virtual. Almost all of the collections will be presented online through the platform Runway360 launched in 2020 by the CFDA. Some creators like Jason Wu or Rebecca Minkoff still opted for an event with a small audience.
London, February 19-23
To London, the British Fashion Council has canceled the January men’s edition. Four events usually punctuate the fashionista calendar: two Fashion Weeks for men’s collections (in January and June) and two for women’s collections (in February and September). This season at Women’s Fashion Week February 19-23 male designers will also participate. This digital only showcase will feature 95 designers including among the highlights the collections of Dunhill, Emilia Wickstead, Edward Crutchley, Fashion East, Liam Hodges, Marques’Almeida, Molly Goddard, Osman, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, QASIMI, Roksanda, Simone Rocha, Temperley London, Tiger of Sweden, Tod’s and Central Saint Martins MA Fashion and Victoria Beckham.
Milan, you February 23 to March 1
Due to the pandemic, Milan had gone digital since the summer of 2020, with only a few physical appointments for some houses.“Our meetings will become more digital or more physical, depending on the evolution of the pandemic”, declared, in November 2020, the president of the Italian Fashion Chamber, Carlo Capasa.
Fall / Winter 2021-22 Women’s Fashion Week, which runs from February 23 to March 1, will host 61 almost 100% virtual fashion shows. Big names in couture like Fendi, Valentino, Prada, Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana will be present. Five stylists from the collective Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion will open this fashion week. Created in 2020, this movement had for the first time been able to attend Milan Fashion Week in September 2020 with a video titled “We are Italy” featuring five black designers, the same who will parade on February 24.
Paris, from March 1 to 9
Paris Fashion Week is doing well: in January, 68 houses presented their fashion menswear fall-winter 2021-22, followed by 28 haute couture houses giving their vision of spring-summer 2021. It is now the turn of women’s fashion to present its fall-winter 2021-22 ready-to-wear from March 1 to Tuesday 9. If the number of creators present has not yet been communicated, the trend will also be in the format digital louser follow government guidelines in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pascal Morand, pexecutive resident of the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, during an interview with franceinfo culture in January, explained that “the distribution of videos by fashion designers on a platform fully representing the official calendar is a very significant resonance factor. Fashion designers and artistic directors have, moreover, better integrated the potential of digital and thus extended their collaborations with filmmakers, videographers and actors of the digital creative scene. This increased creativity will definitely continue when we come back to the physical. The physical scenography will thus be enhanced by a digital scenography “.
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