Several luxury brands are postponing fashion shows due to the coronavirus outbreak and opting for digital presence to showcase their products.
Image source: ReutersBurberry said on Monday that it would livestream its Spring/Summer 2021 fashion show this week in partnership with live video-streaming service Twitch, becoming the first luxury brand to do so. The show will be completely remote, with no guests attending in person, Reuters reported.
Italian brands Giorgio Armani and Versace earlier said they were putting off fashion shows for their Cruise collections. The Armani show had been scheduled for April 19-20 in Dubai, while Versace was due to present its collection in the United States on May 16.
Gucci, a part of French group Kering, had cancelled plans to host its Cruise 2021 fashion show in San Francisco on May 18. Prada and Chanel postponed shows that had been due to take place in Asia in May.
Armani said its event would take place in November, to coincide with Dubai’s Expo 2020, and will no longer be a Cruise collection.
Giorgio Armani held his Milan fashion show behind closed doors.
The Men’s Milan Fashion Week set for June will be postponed to mid-July and presented in purely digital format with photos and video to avoid the risk of coronavirus contagion, Italy’s national fashion chamber said earlier.
The fashion industry has been hard hit by coronavirus-induced closures of shops and the halt to international travel.
Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) announced the first “Milan Digital Fashion Week”, saying brands will present men’s spring/summer 2021 collections and men’s and women’s pre-collections on a digital platform with photo and video content organised in a calendar with slots for each label.
The move was taken to help companies reach out to buyers and promote their brands without person-to-person contact that risked spreading the coronavirus anew.
Fashion groups may also decide to join shows and presentations planned for the September Women’s Fashion Week, which for the time being is still planned to include catwalks and non-digital events.
British Fashion Council merged womenswear and menswear collections for June’s London Fashion Week into one platform and will present them in digital form only.
Giorgio Armani Group said the Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani men’s and women’s collections would be shown in Milan in September, although the format has not yet been determined.
Armani Prive will be postponed to January 2021 and will be held in Milan, not in Paris where it usually takes place.
German sportswear brand Puma recently said uncertainty around the coronavirus made forecasts for the full-year impossible.
“The uncertainty surrounding the virus and the fact that the number of infected people globally is still increasing makes it impossible to determine an accurate financial outlook for the full year,” said Puma CEO Bjoern Gulden said.
Puma’s second-quarter sales fell 30.7 percent to 831 million euros ($975.34 million). Puma also reported loss of 114.8 million euros from a 80.3 million euros a year earlier.
