There’s no doubt that coronavirus has sent shockwaves right through the fashion industry’s core, but it’s also prompted changes, or at least the start of conversations, about issues that have been simmering for some time. Dries Van Noten, the Belgian designer, has written an open letter, with signatures from peers such as Tory Burch, Gabriela Hearst, Erdem Moralioglu and Anya Hindmarch, calling for industry-wide changes to be made. These include putting the autumn/winter season back in winter (from August - January) and spring/summer back in summer (from February - July) to align more closely with how customers actually shop. The letter also focuses on changes that would increase sustainability, including less unnecessary product, less waste in fabrics, less travel and a review of fashion shows as we know them.
The last point is already being put into practice, with the British Fashion Council announcing last month that London Fashion Week will merge its womenswear and menswear showcases into one digital-only platform in June. While we still don’t know what this entails exactly, one designer across the pond has just announced plans that demonstrate the kind of creative thinking that is coming out of this crisis.
According to Vogue.com, instead of a catwalk show, Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond will stage a drive-in film premiere for American, Also. Telling the story behind his spring/summer show in September 2019, one of the biggest talking points of New York Fashion Week’s calendar, and inspired by the black pop culture icons, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, that history has either forgotten or overlooked. And while there won't be a collection per se, there will be some sort of capsule produced alongside the premiere.
‘The whole thesis was created to take elements of popular American society and show how black people had a hand in them,’ Jean-Raymond explains during the trailer. The film will also be shown at drive-in screenings in different cities, reaching a vast audience, and allowing them to experience something more than a straightforward fashion show, which he describes as a ‘typically elitist’ space.
The jury’s out on whether coronavirus will permanently change the way designers show their collections, but if this is the future, it certainly looks exciting.
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