Fashion’s genderless agenda: London Fashion Week has a new look

This season, for the first time, London Fashion Week is digital and gender-neutral. But what does the future hold, asks Emma McCarthy
Bianca Saunders x Ronan McKenzie
Emma McCarthy10 June 2020

With fashion weeks cancelled across the globe, the future of the catwalk show hangs in the balance. But here in London there is a brave new dawn. It’s out with swarms of influencers and awkward seating arrangements. In with a virtual front row poised to spectate from their sofas.

This Friday, at 11:55am to be precise, London’s first digital fashion week will begin. The moment also marks the capital’s first “gender-neutral” catwalk event, with menswear and womenswear united to share a platform for the first time in the event’s 37-year history.

“We’re in the midst of the biggest crisis that our industry has ever faced,” says Stephanie Phair, chairwoman of the British Fashion Council, “and it has prompted us to accelerate decisions that have been long in discussion.” She points out that London Fashion Week is no stranger to digital innovation as one of the first — “if not the first” — to live-stream catwalk shows to the public, and adds that “an online platform gives the opportunity for flexibility and allows designers to tell their stories in different ways”.

Accordingly, this weekend’s schedule will play host to a diverse collection of creative content, from panel discussions to podcasts and designer diaries to digital showrooms. There will be three key sections on the site, which is open to all. The Explore homepage will act like a “Netflix for fashion” with streams of content available to browse, whether you’re searching for something to watch, read or shop. The Schedule page provides details of when to tune into live highlights, while Designers Profiles provides a comprehensive introduction to the names which make up the fabric of LFW.

Bianca Saunders x Ronan McKenzie

One thing that’s notably absent is a catwalk show. The question remains whether or not they will return. “I don’t think the catwalk show is gone for good,” Phair says. “It’s an industry which relies on a community and there will still be a desire for the excitement surrounding a physical presentation. But it’s safe to say it’s going to be an evolution. Inertia is tough to change, but necessity has given designers permission not to have to go back to old structures.”

Certainly, LFW’s latest incarnation is part of a growing trend within the industry to engage with consumers online, via Instagram Live, Zoom webinars and YouTube tutorials. It also chimes with Paris and Milan which will resort to staging digital-only fashion weeks next month. But it’s indicative of a bigger shift.

Crucially, fashion’s genderless agenda is about more than women in power suits and men in skirts (though the catwalks are no stranger to either). Instead, it gives designers free rein to showcase not only what they want — be it menswear, womenswear, both or neither — but when they want. Where previously the menswear shows have been held in January and June and womenswear falls in February and September, the step to combine and condense the two is reflective of a rapidly changing market — one which is increasingly undefined by the traditional rules of gender and retail seasonality.

In essence, it’s a reset for an industry in the midst of an identity crisis. Long before shops were shuttered, manufacturing was halted and travel was banned, the debate surrounding sustainability and the influence of the social media machine had threatened the existence of the international catwalk show system and led some to reject the fashion-week model. Just a fortnight ago, Alessandro Michele’s Italian superbrand Gucci announced that it would be reducing its number of shows from five to two “seasonless” co-ed collections a year.

But what of the labels without the luxury of becoming self-sufficient? For the capital’s young creatives, whose freshly laid foundations have been rocked by the events of recent months, London Fashion Week is a crucial lifeline with a network of brands — big and small — counting on its survival.

Joshua Woods

Fashion schools, for instance, will have a presence on the schedule in a bid to give next-gen talent a place to take their first, all-important step into business. With graduate fashion shows cancelled, students from 14 colleges including Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion will come together to form The Class of 2020, with experimental content spanning everything from at-home fashion “shows” to lockdown photoshoots.

“There’s a lot of discussion about whether fashion week is going to exist after this, but a lot of people’s jobs rely on it existing,” says rising menswear star Bianca Saunders, who founded her namesake label two years ago and who is among the highlights on this weekend’s schedule. Having spent lockdown at her family home in Brockley and unable to visit her studio in Brixton, Saunders has made the decision not to launch a new collection this season, but will instead use the platform to host a panel discussion and launch a zine, created in collaboration with Harlem-born photographer Joshua Woods and shot in New York last April. Entitled We Are One of The Same, it explores key themes such as black identity and the “borderline gender fluidity” of her work.

Crucially, she has also used the time to research, rethink her business model and introduce an e-shop to her website. “Space is important — it’s what I’ve learned as a silver lining coming out of quarantine,” she says. “Before, I was working seven days a week, non-stop, from 7am to midnight, but designers need time to be creative.”

She welcomes the change to the schedule, describing the opt-in format as “healthier” and the inclusivity as further progress towards menswear and womenswear being viewed as “equally important”. But when asked if she would like the change to digital to be permanent, Saunders is “in two minds”, adding that “there is a recovery mode in going back to normal”. Ultimately, she believes the opportunity to be selective and take ownership of the creative process is what counts. “I think now more brands will be braver to take breaks, which is really positive and puts less pressure on smaller brands like myself to match them.”

Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, who founded Preen over two decades ago and have been a fixture of LFW since 2001, mirror the sentiment that this change has been a long time coming. “The traditional schedule was restrictive and all-consuming,” says Thornton. “Lockdown has given us the one thing we always craved — time to rethink.” The brand will be launching a campaign film during LFW featuring a “seasonless” collection, which will be available in stores in September.

(Preen by Thornton Bregazzi )
Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

But the last few months has taken its toll. “Time has been a luxury, but fear of the unknown has been tough,” he says, speaking of how the design duo sought to quickly “adapt to the new normal”. He adds: “We will have been influenced by the situation but it’s too soon to say as we are still living it.”

Certainly, fashion’s ability to bounce back is at the forefront of minds. Through a partnership with digital wholesale platform Joor, buyers “visiting” LFW will have access to virtual lookbooks and be able to place orders online for the season ahead, wherever they are in the world. As Phair explains, “Even if someone doesn’t travel to London, it doesn’t stop them from buying for their boutique.”

For Natalie Kingham, fashion buying director of womenswear at Matchesfashion.com, fashion week’s new look doesn’t alter its relevance. “Fashion retail is built around the creativity of the designers and fashion is a wonderful historical reference of what is going on at any particular time in the world. That’s not going to change — having designers showcase their viewpoint is important.”

Damien Paul, head of menswear at the brand, also supports the shift. “Do I think rolling out to dozens of shows per day feels forward thinking? Maybe not. The unknown is an invigorating thought. I embrace the new, and while I hope we don’t lose a more traditional show format altogether, it’s time to evolve.”

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