NEW YORK – New York kicks off a Fashion Week in which virtual presentations predominate and the big names of yesteryear are absent, with the exception of Canadian designer Jason Wu, who this Sunday night opens the appointment with the rarity of a face-to-face parade.
This digital “Fashion Week”, the second to be held in the Big Apple under capacity restrictions to contain the covid-19 pandemic, reflects the difficult moment that the sector is going through with the addition that the recent snowfalls and the cold are not the best stage for outdoor shows.
The samples that previously were concentrated in one week have now gained flexibility by being integrated into the “Calendar of American Collections”, the name by which the US Council of Designers has renamed the event to encompass the talent of the country, regardless of dates or location.
Although this calendar runs until mid-April, most of the presentations will be held between February 14 and 17 through videos, “lookbooks” published on the internet, live broadcasts and other virtual formats, with the exception of physical parades. by Jason Wu and Rebecca Minkoff.
Among the designers who will launch autumn 2021 collections are well-known brands such as Prabal Gurung, Monse, Anna Sui, Alice + Olivia, Nicole Miller or The Blonds, but there are fewer and fewer veterans, such as Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs, who have joined the flight of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren.
Other emblematic houses have decided to leave their fashion shows for later: Carolina Herrera has a tentative date of February 23 and Oscar de la Renta on March 2. The Uruguayan Gabriela Hearst (February 18) and the Spanish Alejandra Alonso Rojas (March 1) are also out of the pattern.
This “Fashion Week” will take place between the Runway360 digital platform, released in the last edition, and the virtual “headquarters” of nyfw.com, places where it is foreseeable that the inaccessible shows of Wu and Minkoff, which they will attend, will also be seen. a small group of privileged people under the rules of distance and masks.
Stripped of the usual traffic of models and fashionistas who crave a front row, the physical headquarters of the NYFW that is in the Spring Studios of Manhattan will expose “showrooms” with collections of black designers, fruit of the diversifying effort that is leading the Black in Fashion Council.
This group, which has been collaborating since last year with the organization of Fashion Week to make Afro-American talent visible, simultaneously performs another “showroom” in Los Angeles and stars in some talks to analyze the present and future of the sector amid uncertainty of the coronavirus.
These talks include designers Sergio Hudson and Alexandra O’Neill, Markarian’s creative, who dressed Vice President Kamala Harris on the day of the inauguration.
Outside the official calendar, New York Fashion Week will host the second virtual presentation of the Federation of Latin American Fashion Designers (FDLA), in which the Peruvian Yirko Sivirich and the Dominican Giannina Azar stand out.
– .
