Catwalking Virtually in Style
We all know how Covid-19 has brought all kind of events to a standstill and forced businesses to take the digital route. From music concerts, award shows, literary festivals and even fashion shows, digital has become a collective refuge and often the first response.
Talking of fashion shows, while no one predicted a near-complete halt that the industry has witnessed globally; eventually, it became so. Forced by this crisis, fashion experts and curators began imagining newer formats to stay relevant. And the result was the rise of virtual events, which has now become mainstay if not mainstream.
Haute Couture & Covid-19
The world’s first entirely virtual fashion week—Shanghai Fashion Week was recently streamed online. According to its organisers, this week-long event generated $72 million in online sales and garnered a total of 11 million livestream views.
As per reports, Shanghai Fashion Week organisers also are now planning to host a physical format too, from October 8 to 16. It must be mentioned that while the last season garnered more than 150,000 visitors including fashion shows, trade fairs, forums, parties and other events, few overseas media, buyers and brands are expected to attend this time’s virtual event. The popular Moscow Fashion Week chose to go digital this time and had over 830,000 people streaming it. Further, now Milan Fashion Week is combining physical and digital with Prada pushing the hybrid format to the next level.
According to Sanjoy K Roy, MD, Teamwork Arts, an online pret show is an extension to the online session mania and should work well. “Fashion exists in a visual spectrum with fashion shoots and enhanced imagery, be it against a heritage backdrop, a street scene, an over the top set or well-appointed backdrop. The photographer, model and the clothes work as a collective to create a desirable image. The only issue is that frontbenchers won’t get to f launt their cash by showing off their couture,” Roy adds.
Online Mania
According to some experts, due to lingering effects of the pandemic, digital will continue to remain an integral part of fashion shows across the world. While a virtual fashion week could never really rival the old standard, however, the use of evolved technology is making virtual shows look equally impressive. Show curators are using green screen, augmented reality and visual effects to create an illusion of a near-real event.
“World over from Milan to New York, virtual fashion shows are happening since this is the new normal and believe it is working really well, and I firmly believe it’s here to stay for now”, adds Sonal Jindal, Fashion Designer and Founder-Director, MEDUSA.
With physical fashion weeks on hold, the niche world of digital fashion is being gradually catapulted to the mainstream. As we move to a pandemic with no near end in sight, digital fashion shows could become even more immersive and hi-tech as the discipline evolves. Some reports also suggest that 3D avatars wearing digitally created clothing, real models’ wearing real or digital attires, facing beamed onto 3D bodies, are all options that might dominate the world of online fashion sooner than we imagined.
