Will Paris Digital Fashion Week work?

A few hours after the conclusion of the Paris Haute Couture Week, today opens the Paris Digital Fashion Week, the digital version of the Paris Fashion Week organized by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode that will present the SS21 collections. Originally scheduled for the end of June, the Paris Fashion Week - renamed "Whispers of Paris" - will go on from 9 to 13 July and is part of the digital iterations of London Fashion Week (12-14 June, which was a flop) and Milan Fashion Week (14-17 July). All information is available at this link.

Just as it happened in London and Milan, there are also some big absentees in Paris:

1. The brands that confirmed their presence include: Études, JW Anderson, Berluti, Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton, Ungaro, Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, Dries Van Noten, Isabel Marant, Balmain Homme, Loewe, Hermès, Lanvin, Dior Homme and Thom Browne;
2. Among the absentees, however, we note: Givenchy (following the appointment of Matthew Williams as new creative director), Acne Studios, Ami, Jacquemus, which will set up a physical show on July 16th. but above all Saint Laurent and Valentino, who since the first weeks of quarantine has selected their separation from the traditional system of the fashion weeks.

To participate, brands were asked to send a maximum 20 minutes-long video explaining the collection or their inspiration: an opportunity to experiment with creativity and think outside the box (as did Maria Grazia Chiuri, who for Dior's Haute Couture called the director Matteo Garrone). Despite their presence on the calendar, some brands have already revealed their collections: this is the case of Hermès, who on 5 July organized a live performance in collaboration with the artist Cyril Taste; the streaming will be repeated on July 12 during the official programming and the maison justified itself by appealing to the artist's availability. Similarly, JW Anderson presented the new collection in a video posted on July 2 on its official website and Instagram profile, while preparing another video for the official date.

All the events of Paris Fashion Week can be streamed on an app (available on Apple and Android) that is accessible to the public and has spaces reserved for professionals as well, which includes an editorial section (a sort of magazine), a page for events and concerts, but above all "Sphere", a sort of virtual showroom for young designers in collaboration with Le New Black. Unlike London and Milan, open to a wide range of online content, Paris Digital Fashion Week is the one that most of all remembers the traditional fashion weeks and focuses on the presentation of the collections rather than on the proposal of new ways of virtual content.

The physical shows, however, will soon return: Milan will resume with the physical fashion week from 22 to 28 September while from September 26 to October 6 Paris Fashion Week will also return to organize normal fashion shows - but in compliance with the norms of social space and with fewer guests.