National Chamber of Italian Fashion has announced plans to stage its first digital Milan Fashion Week in July, as the luxury fashion sector struggles to rebound from the coronavirus crisis.
The body made this known in a statement, saying;
This is a concrete response to the need for promotion and business on the part of brands.
Milano Digital Fashion Week from July 14-17 will allow for the presentation of spring/summer 2021 men’s collections and spring/summer 2021 men’s and women’s pre-collections, along with a platform designed to give access to showrooms.
This follows in the footsteps of Shanghai Digital Fashion Week, Helsinki’s virtual Fashion Week and London’s digital Fashion Week.
The digital offerings will include photo and video content, backstage interviews with designers, as well as webinars and live streaming of keynote speeches, all to be aired on Camera della Moda, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Weibo and YouTube.
On his part, the President of National Chamber of Italian Fashion (Camera della Moda), Carlo Capasa stated;
The idea of this digital Fashion Week is to have something a bit different from a normal Fashion Week. It’s something we thought of specially for the digital world.
He continued;
It’s something very mixed. Everybody can decide their own message. The advantage is that in a digital world, you are completely free. You find your way of expression. We said to everybody, You have from one minute to 15 minutes, and you decide what you want to show.
Capasa explained that;
For some, like Ermenegildo Zegna, which has announced a combined physical-digital runway show for mid-July, the content might resemble a more traditional runway show or look book, but for others, it could be a fashion movie, or a backstage [photo], or an interview.
The French Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion also recently announced a similar initiative, with an online presentation of spring/summer 2021 men’s ready-to-wear from July 9 to 13.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming ready-to-wear week and haute couture shows in Paris in June and July have been cancelled.
In March, Italy’s fashion chamber announced that men’s shows scheduled for June would be pushed back until September, joining the women’s shows.
The coronavirus pandemic erupted in Italy in late February, during Milan’s Fashion Week, causing some designers to present their runway shows without audiences.
Thousands of Chinese buyers and media were prevented from traveling to the shows, forcing the fashion chamber to now offer digital alternatives to the runway shows and showrooms.
As at May 9th, Italy has 217,185 coronavirus infections, 30,201 deaths and 99,023 recoveries
