Change, they say, is constant, and as the world of haute couture fashion has quickly come to realize, it can hit you when you least expect and in ways you least imagine. For the first time ever since its launch in 1973, the Paris Fashion Week is going fully digital.
Speaking on the event kicking off today, Pascal Morand, the executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the governing body in charge, said, “It’s not a substitute, it’s something new.”
Featuring household names such as Chanel, Dior and Valentino, a digital alternative to the couture show is taking place from today, 6 July to 9 July, while the Spring/Summer 2021 Men’s Fashion Week that was slated to take place 23-28 June 2020, will run from 9 to 13 July.
Paris’s digital shows are part of a broader industry transition to recreate the fashion show online through partnerships with digital platforms like YouTube, Google, Instagram and Chinese agency Hylink through which it will team up with WeChat, Weibo and Little Red Book. Milan too goes digital from 14-17 July while Burberry has promised a hybrid digital-physical show in September with the benefits of a large-scale production, shown virtually.
Still getting it right is proving tough: London’s digital fashion week in June, spearheaded by the British Fashion Council, received mixed reviews and failed to draw significant attention online. Diminishing the weight of the shift to digital is the looming return of in-person shows slated for September. While SS21 New York Fashion Week has been shortened to a three-day, digital event, organisers in both Milan and Paris have announced that the physical fashion shows will return in September.
Insiders say the digitisation of fashion week comes with the loss of emotion. For smaller designers rushing to produce collections following lockdown delays and cash flow issues, producing a digital film or presentation raises an additional challenge. But digital events also present an opportunity to reach new audiences and explore new ways of showing collections.
“Even if the commercial role of fashion week isn’t necessarily fulfilled, it’s about reasserting the continuity of the cultural functions of Paris Fashion Week,” says Institut Français de la Mode professor Benjamin Simmenauer, who’s overseeing the event’s digital content.
For its digital events, the organisers of Paris Fashion Week pulled together an online platform that includes a calendar section where the houses’ videos live, a magazine section, an “event” section that offers panel discussions and concerts, a brand section and “Sphere”, a virtual showroom for young designers done in partnership with Le New Black, a pioneering online fashion trade show.
Participation guidelines include the submission of a film no longer than 20 minutes that presents an SS21 collection or expresses the brand or the creative process. Other than that, it’s carte blanche. “Houses are becoming broadcasters,” says fashion show production company OBO founder René Célestin. “As such they are live streaming with several cameras, mixing media, collaborating with directors from the film industry or art.”
Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Dior Homme, Dries Van Noten, Berluti, Hermès and Lanvin will show during Paris’s digital men’s week, while absentees include Givenchy, Acne Studios, Ami and Valentino. Some reasons: Givenchy has just named a new designer; Valentino decided to show its men’s collection alongside women’s in September and Acne Studios already sold the collection digitally to buyers.
Designers say the experience of putting on a digital show has resulted in the use of new creative mediums and yielded insights about design and collections.
Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing tapped Andrew Makadsi, the art director behind Beyoncé’s videos, to record the physical show that he staged on a boat last week; the video will air on 11 July as part of the Paris Fashion Week couture schedule. “We’re bringing in different people like Andrew to integrate the post-production work and make it digital,” Rousteing explains.
The show (which respected sanitary measures) included performances and the presentation of some archive couture pieces and some of Rousteing’s recent creations. The designer will show his SS21 men’s collection alongside women’s in September. “I am still hoping that my clients and the press will be able to travel in September and see my show,” he says. With all travel by Americans into the European Union still banned, this remains to be seen.
Others are also presenting early. Hermès explained that it did it before PFW only because the artist was only available that day. Hermès staged a live performance on 5 July with no audience, in collaboration with artist Cyril Teste, with a rebroadcast planned for 12 July. Jonathan Anderson presented his collection for his JW Anderson brand on 2 July in a video on the brand’s website and Instagram account. In a 12-minute video shot in his office, without models, he explained the inspiration behind his creations, showing illustrations to the camera. “It’s this idea of an act of divineness to try to work creatively around solutions to be able to present something. I think it’s very important for us to keep the momentum,” Anderson told viewers. Another video will be broadcast on 9 July on Paris’s digital platform.
Designer Julie de Libran worked with sound designer and director Frédéric Sanchez on a short film on the behind-the-scenes of her made-to-measure dresses label, in which you see fittings and other exclusive moments. “This allowed me to realise that I have to be more disciplined about documenting how I work,” she says. “It is important in our times of social media.” She is not presenting new pieces. “I didn’t want to rush anything and I prioritise my existing orders.”
Couture designer Ronald van der Kemp is presenting a series of short films but finds the digital format challenging. “The essence of couture is realness,” he says, noting that the event proves that new collections are not always essential to communicate. “We don’t need to produce as much.”
Lanvin creative director Bruno Sialelli agrees. He will present a sharper, tighter men’s collection, around 30 looks, roughly half the typical amount. “Everyone’s in a rush. Everybody’s landed on two wheels,” says Cyril Cabellos, Lanvin’s head of communications. “But it is better than nothing at all. Paris digital fashion week is well done. The houses have played the game and it maintains the concept of equity.”
Source: Vogue Business