In the midst of Paris Fashion Week, we’ve been handed the saddening news that Seoul’s much anticipated Fashion Week AW20 presentations have been cancelled.
The news comes after South Korea reported over 977 cases of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus), the largest number in the world after China. 10 people have already died of the virus in South Korea.
According to The Korea Herald, a Seoul Metropolitan Government official in charge of the biannual fashion week said that “We have internally decided to cancel the 2020 fall-winter Seoul Fashion Week and will notify the concerned parties of the decision in a few days. However, we will seek ways to support and help designers in Korea by hosting other international design fairs instead.”
The effects that COVID-19 has had on Fashion Month has been dire, with many designers pulling out of presentations over New York, London, Milan and Paris, and audience attendance dwindling significantly from past years.
During London Fashion Week, ASAI was forced to cancel his show due to the closure of A Sai Ta’s factory in Shanghai, while Armani chose to shut out the public from its AW20 presentation at Milan Fashion Week; opting to invite them to view the collection and catwalk virtually.
In a similar move, popular K-pop group, BTS, announced via email that they planned on performing the live shows that were initially scheduled without an audience in an effort to protect fans from exposure to the virus.
“Recently, the broadcasting stations have decided to record the music shows without any audience to prevent the spread of Coronavirus,” BTS wrote.
The Korean Music Awards have also been cancelled for the same reason.
The Seoul Fashion Week AW20 was set to showcase 36 designers from March 17 to 21 before cancelling, yet The Korea Herald reported that the SS2021 Seoul Fashion Week will still be held in October as planned.
So it looks like fashion junkies will have to hold out for a couple more months before we get our fix of all the fashion Seoul has to offer.
Subscribe to FIB’s Weekly Alchemy Report for your weekly dose of music, fashion and pop culture news!