Paris Fashion Week to go digital due to Covid-19

The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode has confirmed that Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week will still go ahead, however, there will be no invited guests this season due to Covid-19 restrictions in the country. 

In an e-mail to FashionUnited, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode explained that all shows and presentations would now take place online only, as “public gatherings can’t happen”.

Fashion houses will still be able to organise live shows with models, “providing that their events take place behind closed doors”.

In addition, brands will be able to organise meetings and presentations, providing strict coronavirus guidelines are respected, with organisers adding that this is “subject to a limit on the number of people present at the same time in a given space”.

Currently, the French government is enforcing a nightly curfew in metropolitan France from 8 pm to 6 am. While shops and services are now open, bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres and museums remain closed.

Paris Fashion Week and Haute Couture Fashion Week to be audience-free this January

Paris Men’s Fashion Week runs from January 19 to 24 and the provisional calendar, which so far only includes dates and times, not formats, includes Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Issey Miyake, Dries Van Noten, Dior Homme, Paul Smith, Wales Bonner, Hermes, Vetements, Jil Sander, Thom Browne and Celine.

This will be followed up with Haute Couture Week running from January 25 to 27, with the provisional schedule opening with Schiaparelli, Iris Van Herpen, Christian Dior and Giambattista Valli on the Monday. 

Tuesday starts with Chanel and features Stéphane Rolland, Alexandre Vauthier, Giorgio Armani Privé and Valentino. While the final day opens with Maison Margiela, followed by Elie Saab, Viktor and Rolf, Zuhair Murad, and concludes with Jean Paul Gaultier.

All showcases will be featured on the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode’s online platform at www.fhcm.paris. 

This follows the news earlier this month that Copenhagen Fashion Week is to go digital-only this February for its autumn/winter 2021 season due to the prolonged Covid-19 restrictions in Denmark. Copenhagen Fashion Week had hoped that it would be able to showcase a combination of physical and digital presentations from February 2-5, however, the Danish government strengthened its coronavirus restrictions. 

Image: courtesy of Dior Homme - autumn/winter 2021 by Brett Lloyd