To avoid new infections, the July shows will be watched through a screen: the Milano digital fashion week is here. And it is the environment that stands to benefit most.
We half expected it, and it could hardly have been any other way. From 14 to 17 July 2020, the first entirely digital fashion week will take place. The announcement was made by the Camera nazionale della moda italiana, which is supporting the struggling sector with the Milano digital fashion week – July issue. The virtual world will host the presentation of the men's spring-summer 2021 collections and the women's and men's spring-summer 2021 pre-collections.
It is not the first time fashion has experimented with the digital: in February, at the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic in Italy, Giorgio Armani showed to a closed house "so as not to expose guests to any risk to their health," streaming the show live. Above all, however, in response to the absence in Milan of buyers and journalists from a particularly strategic country such as China, the Camera nazionale della moda italiana allowed more than 25 million people to follow all the activities of Milano moda donna autumn-winter 2021 remotely, via the live stream of the China we are with you project.
Leggi anche: Quale sarà il futuro della moda dopo la pandemia
"The development of a digital fashion week is a concrete response to the moment we are living through, one that gives us the opportunity to continue the journey begun in February with the China we are with you initiative," explained Carlo Capasa, president of the Camera nazionale della moda, who had initially described the virtual week as "a forced move." "In this difficult situation, it is essential to give all companies the opportunity to present their collections during the digital fashion week in July. Our goal is both to support the recovery of the entire fashion system and to reach the media, buyers and the entire fashion community through a wealth of content, designed for all players in the system." Capasa has had a change of heart, then, following in the footsteps of the Shanghai fashion week in March, which was entirely virtual, and the announcement from Paris of a fashion week with a similar format, scheduled for 9 to 14 July — the first instance in which Paris is on the calendar before Milan.
Leggi anche: Coronavirus, il mondo della moda si attiva con donazioni e contributi
While a digital fashion week may on the one hand seem disorienting and lacking in one important dimension — physicality — which brings with it the possibility of observing, touching and photographing garments, on the other it will have the enormous advantage of saving considerable quantities of CO2 emissions. Emanuele Farneti, editor of Vogue Italia, explained as early as January, in an editorial, the impact that fashion shoots have on the environment, with dozens of flights, train journeys, transfers, shipments, lighting rigs and catering. Now try to imagine the pollution an entire fashion week generates. And even if the digital fashion week may not be the definitive solution, it certainly represents a step forward — or at the very least an invitation to careful reflection — in the process of change the entire sector is undergoing, in favour of a more sustainable fashion. Because it is Giorgio Armani himself who reminds us of the absurdity of the current state of affairs, arguing that "a careful and intelligent slowdown" is urgent and necessary.
Leggi anche: Niente servizi fotografici, solo disegni. Il numero di gennaio di Vogue Italia per il clima
On the digital platform proposed by the Camera della moda, photographic and video content, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of creative moments will be presented, alongside alternative perspectives organised into a calendar with dedicated slots for each brand, with the aim of creating a rich and varied schedule accessible to all industry players. There will also be in-depth webinars, live-streamed lectio magistralis sessions with leading figures from the fashion world, and moments of entertainment and live performances by creatives. In addition, there will be a section of the platform dedicated entirely to showrooms, which had already experimented with new virtual formats during the February fashion week to maintain contact with Chinese buyers who were unable to travel.
"It is a great achievement for us to bring together, for the first time within this initiative, a section dedicated exclusively to supporting showrooms and buyers," Capasa continued. The calendar is still being finalised, "without prejudice to the physical shows in September," the Camera della moda is keen to point out. In short, things remain uncertain for a little while longer. But the desire and the intention to support the sector and the city are there. As demonstrated by re Giorgio, who is leaving the French capital to bring haute couture to the shadow of the Madonnina.