The first ever virtual London Fashion Week to begin on June 12

London Fashion Week will begin on June 12 and it will heavily rely on its new digital platform to create virtual showrooms, hosting podcasts and organizing interactive virtual events. The London Fashion Week which is scheduled to be held in September is not planned to be a virtual one.

The British Fashion Council (BFC) has created this new virtual platform for the first time in its glorious 40-year history.  Their aim is to be “the Netflix channel for fashion”, for the fashion designers to showcase their collections virtually in an inspirational way.

The event has replaced men’s week and it will be absolutely gender neutral. Smaller women’s labels like Teatum Jones and Lou Dalton will also be a part of this event wile some big names such as Craig Green, Matty Bovan, A-Cold-Wall, Edward Crutchely and Art School will be missing.

Backed by British Fashion Council (BFC) and Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), by hosting the London Fashion Week virtually, an attempt is made to follow the social distancing requirements and to promote fashion in a sustainable way by  showcasing fewer but high-quality collections. Milan and Paris fashion weeks are scheduled to be hosted virtually while New York has postponed their men’s fashion week.

As per Clara Mercer, the Communication Director of British Fashion Council, “We are very much looking at this as a reset for not just fashion week but for whole industry and how we do business”. To give the attendees the feel of a live conversation during the fashion week, any content that they tag will be portrayed on their site. Mercer said, “That’s the thing that will be missing most as we are not physically together”.

Some of the big names that will appear on this virtual platform will be Nicholas Daley, Daniel W. Fletcher, Priya Ahluwalia, Charles Jeffrey, Feng Chen Wang and Xander Zhou.

 Each designer will be provided with their own page where they can showcase their collections and they will be equipped with the “See now, buy now” technology wherein the interested customers will be guided to their e-commerce platforms and their Instagram page. Press and attendees can also  virtually interact with the brand representatives.

The attendees will be allowed to be a part of the panel discussions and podcasts organized by BFC. The virtual showrooms will also be open to the public.

The virtual showrooms are created by a digital platform for fashion named Joor. The client base of Joor consists of brands like Loewe and Balenciaga. The technology for interactive sessions and ‘see now, buy now’ experience for shoppable products has been provided by Smartzer. Smartzer has previously worked with some top luxury brands like Jimmy Choo and Harvey Nichols. Platforms such as Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest have also offered various tools to provide the attendees with traditional show experience virtually. These platforms will also help in driving product sales.

As per London based men’s wear designer, Charles Jeffrey, who is all set to showcase his small capsule of jersey and other accessories in the all-digital London Fashion Week, “Physical happenings or a ‘sense of event’ is who we are as a label and the removal of that discipline has forced us to flex some new creative muscles.” He believes in the fact that the collections will be presented in a purposeful and timely way through this virtual platform.