The New Fashion Week
I’m sure you all aren’t even remotely surprised, but I am coming at you with another post about fashion week – I mean how could I not?
Initially, the British Fashion Council (BFC) unsurprisingly announced that London Fashion Week Men’s, which usually takes place in June, would be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic (“The Future,” 2020). But just last week, the BFC took the current challenges as an opportunity for a reinvention of the traditional fashion week. On April 21, 2020, the BFC announced that London Fashion Week Men’s would happen DIGITALLY. As stated by Caroline Rush, the chief executive of the British Fashion Council, “by creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and something to build on a global showcase for the future” (Yotka, 2020, para. 2).
Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council.
But wait, there’s more – this reinvention isn’t exclusively for London Fashion Week Men’s, it is for ALL London Fashion Weeks occurring over the next 12 months. According to an article published by AnOther on April 21, 2020, “for the next 12 months all London Fashion Weeks will go gender neutral, merging womenswear and menswear into a single platform ‘to allow designers greater flexibility’” (para. 2). With this exciting announcement, we are not only seeing a move to the digital space, which is quite the step forward for sustainability, but also a merging of menswear and womenswear! While the full details have yet to be disclosed, it seems as if the digital fashion week platform will allow a greater range of designers, and other individuals involved in the creative fashion process, the opportunity to speak on and about their designs, the business, culture, community and the extraordinary times in which we are living.
Richard Quinn Spring/Summer 2020.
As Caroline Rush, chief executive of the BFC, acknowledged, London Fashion Week provides not only an opportunity for designers to showcase their amazing work, but it also provides a platform to recognize the influences of society, identity and culture on the fashion industry at large (“The Future,” 2020). While a pandemic is certainly not the reason anyone wanted to see a change in the fashion industry, this change is welcomed by sustainability advocates with open arms. As stated by Sarah Angold, creative director at Sarah Angold Studio, on her LinkedIn profile, “it isn’t how we hoped it would happen, but reinventing fashion week is a big win for sustainability” (LinkedIn, 2020).
With all that’s been said here, we have some pretty exciting things going on with this news about London Fashion Week. All my fingers and toes are crossed in the hopes of success! Maybe this will provide just the right amount of push to encourage other fashion weeks to alter the traditional format in favor of a more sustainable and inclusive option.
Bye for now,
McGee