There was no way for London Fashion Week to escape the impact of coronavirus. When it’s impossible to have a physical runway, why not go for the ‘digital edition’?
There are no live runway shows. No front row sitting, backstage beauty scrum or photographers. The first-ever digital London Fashion Week, LFW June 2020 take place in a digital showcase. This replaces the typical 3-day catwalk show, which previously known as ‘London Fashion Week Men’s’. The digital showcase flavour of choice was gender-neutral fashion and creativity, bringing the fashion community together from anywhere around the globe.
“By creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and enacting something to build on as a global showcase for the future,” Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council (BFC) said.
The event mounted as a Netflix-style platform featuring multimedia roll-out, including interview, video presentation, digital showroom and podcast. These are all open to the public with free access to its London Fashion Week homepage.
“The other side of this crisis, we hope, will be about sustainability, creativity and product that you value, respect, cherish, ” she said.
The environmental and ethical awareness of fashion has been circulating the industry in recent years and London Fashion Week has been forced to reflect on over-consumption and the number of shows held in each year. Undoubtedly, the LFW digital showcase is an experimental shock to allow the fashion industry to reconsider its fashion sustainability. People may have heard something beyond the runway, like fashion week is wasteful, exhausting and disorganized. So, is it time to evolve?
In early February this year, Giorgio Armani held a ‘closed-door runway show’ due to the coronavirus concern. The Shanghai Fashion Week in April also taken entirely online and cooperated with Tmall, Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platform. Designers share their inspiration in real-time to enrich the viewer’s experience. Also, an extensive ‘See now, Buy now’ livestream which allows viewers to purchase catwalk item with their phones.
It is essential to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate.
The old must go to make way for the new
The LFW digital showcase is completely pivotal in transforming the traditional fashion industry. The digital transition offers an opportunity for fresh designers that do not have ‘connections’ or financial power to showcase their collections at LFW. It is time to look for the future that drive change and establish long-term benefits with sustainable business models.
“Many of our businesses have always embraced London Fashion Week as a platform for not just fashion but for its influence on society, identity and culture. The current pandemic is leading us all to reflect more poignantly on the society we live in and how we want to live our lives and build businesses when we get through this,” she said.
The fashion industry is changing the way of content delivery. At the same time, it unveils an immersive experience and a breath of fresh air. To join the next round of fashion show, anyone with a computer and internet connection can snag a front-row seat.
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