London Fashion Week: This season everyone can see the spring/summer2021 collections
A combination of online and offline fashion shows will dictate a new normal for LFW
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Your support makes all the difference.London Fashion Week will be radically different this season.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, real-life catwalk shows have been traded for online live-streamed ones, with just a handful of designers staging socially-distanced small shows and appointments that members of the fashion industry can attend.
Industry insiders will be invited to view the new collections in one-on-one appointments.
However, in a fashion week first, members of the public will also be invited to watch almost all of the shows, as the majority of designers have chosen to debut their collections online via the British Fashion Council (BFC) website.
The event will take place from 17-22 September, with day one’s proceedings kicking off with a live-streamed show from Burberry.
The schedule, which was announced this week, includes menswear designers as well as womenswear in a gender-neutral showcase.
The change follows the cancellation of the usual mens' week schedules in June, which were replaced by digital shows.
Which brands will be showing in September?
The following brands are confirmed as planning both online shows and physical appointments.
Bora Aksu, Bethany Williams, Burberry, David Koma, Emilia Wickstead, Emilio de la Morena, Erdem, Eudon Choi, Feng Chen Wang, Halpern, Margaret Howell, Mark Fast, Osman Yousefzada, Paria/Farzaneh, Paul Costelloe, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, Pronounce, Richard Malone, Supriya Lele, Temperley London and Victoria Beckham.
The physical shows will of course be dependent on whether localised lockdowns arise and will have to adhere to social distancing measures if they do go ahead.
Some brands, such as Molly Goddard and Simone Rocha, had initially planned to stage small “salon-style shows”, but have since decided to host a limited number of one-on-one appointments instead in light of the rise in coronavirus cases.
Do we know what any of the shows might look like?
Quintessentially British brand Burberry, which has streamed its physical shows online since 2010, revealed in July that it would be hosting its show outdoors. The announcement included a picture of a coastline with the strap line ‘Burberry In Nature’.
"Set in the British outdoors, the spring/summer 2021 collection will come to life on the 17 September as a live physical presentation that is open for all to experience digitally opening new spaces to our global community as we reconnect with nature and each other”, the brand’s press release read.
What are other fashion week cities planning on doing?
Similar announcements about a combined digital and physical schedule have been made from the organisers of both Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo previously stated that due to “strict state public health guidance” the city’s shows had little or no spectators.
Cuomo said in a statement: “The pandemic is far from over, but we’re proud to support event organiser IMG in moving forward with NYFW, in adherence with strict state public health guidance.”
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this new format?
Digital shows face criticism for being less visceral, but they do come with fringe benefits. Watching shows from home means there’s no travel time, which allows more designers to be added to the schedule that may not normally get the airtime.
It could also reduce the pollution which may usually result from fashion editors’ vehicles travelling between offline events.
Creativity is another clear side-effect of shaking off traditional schedules, proven by brands such as Jacquemus’, whose field-set show was made for Instagram.
The BFC is slated to unveil a more detailed schedule for London Fashion Week in early September.
How can I watch the London Fashion Week shows online?
Apart from Burberry, everything will be streamed on the BFC’s London Fashion Week digital platform here.
Burberry will stream its show at 1pm on Thursday 17 September via Twitch.
You can see the final schedule of what will be streamed when here.
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