Coming off London, Milan Fashion Week seemed to be entangled with mishaps and drama. While questionable tributes and toxic slime pushed people apart, shows from Daniel Lee and Jeremy Scott brought them back together.
We’re almost on our way to the end of FIB’s Fashion Week coverage. And from London, we’ve now ended up in Milan where the shows on the runway seemed to be competing with the happenings off the runway.
With the coronavirus outbreak ramping up in the last few weeks, there was an absence felt at Milan Fashion Week. Chinese designers Angel Chen, Ricostru and Hui all pulled out of their scheduled shows, while Chinese journalists and buyers also opted not to attend the fashion show. And with Chinese buyers accounting for over a third of global luxury consumption, Milan would have felt the setback in sales this year.
The discrepancies in attendance come after Italy’s decision to ban flights from China last month and production stoppages, pushing back designers’ schedules indefinitely. However, organisers at Milan Fashion Week made up for their absence as Chinese buyers were provided with digital mediums giving them access to catwalks and behind the scenes material.
The Giorgio Armani collection was presented in an empty theatre due to coronavirus concerns, leaving models to walk down runways in front of an ‘online audience’. The low attendance seems to be a familiar story with organisers referring to the London Fashion Week turnout as “significantly reduced”.
While Fashion Week brings out fashion junkies and collectors, protestors also come forward during this time to highlight the darker side of the industry. Wasting no time, PETA supporters began their protests once Fashion Week was under way on February 18.
Dumping buckets of ‘toxic slime’ over their heads, PETA supporters called out the leather manufacturing business. The black ‘toxic slime’ represents the waste – manure and slaughter waste, intensive water use, deforestation, and greenhouse-gas emissions – that is involved in the production of leather. Being classified as the most environmentally damaging material in the 2017 ‘Pulse of The Fashion Industry‘ report, the United Nations has been pushing the fashion industry to steer away from animal agriculture. With research from PETA also indicating that chemicals used in the production of leather can be harmful to workers, one can only hope that the industry will begin to respond.
Story By Vishaal Narsey
Editing By Ian Babb
Narration By Paul G Roberts
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