A digital era for London Fashion Week

Change and adaptation have become the new watchwords in fashion and in most other industries since lockdown kicked in back in March. As we continue to live socially distanced, virtual lives, it comes as no surprise that this season’s London Fashion Week event (which starts 12th June), has also undergone a digital transformation.

Forget celebrity spotting on the FROW; London Fashion Week SS21 will be a virtual affair, with content at its heart. The new LFW online hub is all about educating the industry. Expect to see virtual showrooms, interactive videos, podcasts and more from this season’s schedule.

The event’s very first foray in a digital-only sphere will bring together designers such as Rixo, Roksanda, Mulberry, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi and Stephen Jones, although some of fashion’s bigger names will not be participating. Supported by fashion tech giants Joor, virtual showrooms will allow brands to showcase their collections in a slightly different format, away from the usual catwalks and will feature shoppable and clickable content to enhance the virtual experience.

Industry experts are also represented on the agenda, with contributions from University of Westminster, British Fashion Council, Google and Central Saint Martins, to name a few.

The LFW showcase will be available globally to everyone, including the general public and the trade audience, making it the most accessible London Fashion Week we’ve seen yet. And brands are changing the way they plan to showcase accordingly with the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers rather than with media and wholesalers.

The other big change that a digital-only London Fashion Week brings to the fore? Men’s and women’s collections will be combined for the first time, which many believe could spell a permanent shift in catwalk shows and fashion events as we know them. Just days ago, the British Fashion Council announced that all London Fashion Weeks for the next year will be gender neutral events, combining men’s and womenswear collections and, provided it’s successful, this could be the case on a permanent basis too.

London Fashion Week’s online event will take place from 12th – 14th June 2020. Get involved and discover the full agenda here.

This post was created by Pure London editor Emma Wilder