Bringing more bad news from the fashion world, Official Paris Fashion Week has announced that the men’s and couture shows scheduled for June will be cancelled due to the coronavirus. Many businesses, festivals and events are at a standstill, forced to close due to the uncertainty caused by the virus having many of us wondering where is the future of fashion headed.

The official statement given by the official Paris Fashion Week  Fédération writes: “In light of the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic worldwide, strong decisions are required to ensure the safety and health of houses, their employees, and everyone working in our industry.” While the cancellation of both weeks seems a wise choice amid the spread of the coronavirus—men’s and couture bring thousands of designers, models, editors, stylists, buyers, photographers, and other industry professionals to Paris—hope is not lost for the spring 2021 men’s and fall 2020 couture collections. The Fédération is actively working with its members on possible alternatives.” 

Fashion shows that were scheduled for the end of June will now hopefully be scheduled for September 2020, although we are uncertain about the future, the rest of fashion calendar including Milan fashion week next up in September should remain unchanged after everything has calmed down. In order to give designs an opportunity to showcase their designs The National Chamber of Italian Fashion will be providing a digital platform, along with other organisations pledging to create virtual showrooms. With a lot of people turning to the internet to learn new skills, get more information and entertain themselves during this time, creating a digital platform for designers will hopefully be a great way to reach a wider and more diverse audience for the designers. 

This raises more questions on the future of fashion post COVID -19, are we looking at a more digitalised society, will e-commerce and virtual shopping be a bigger thing? Will fashion week be a thing of the past? With so much we are unsure of, now is the time for innovative and forward-thinking individuals in the fashion industry and beyond, to step out of the box and keep creating where possible and planning for the future. The world will be waiting to see who will come out of this stronger and better.