London Fashion Week 2020 is happening online

Despite the pandemic, London Fashion Week will go on.  This is good news for fashion lovers everywhere and for the British Fashion Industry &  economy. Our chums at the British Fashion Council (BFC) promise an exciting season of mostly virtual shows, although some designers have committed to physical shows. Brands showing with both a digital and physical presence are Bethany Williams, Bora Aksu, Christopher Kane, David Koma, Edeline Lee, Emilia Wickstead, Emilio de la Morena, ERDEM, Eudon Choi, Fashion East, Halpern, Kaushik Velendra, Mark Fast, Molly Goddard, Osman, Paul Costelloe, PREEN by Thornton Bregazzi, PRONOUNCE, Temperley London, TOGA and Victoria Beckham.

The  Sept 2020 London Fashion Week (LFW) schedule will host over 80 designers including 40 womenswear, 15 menswear, 20 menswear & womenswear and 5 accessories brands. There will be a total of 50 digital only activations, 21 physical and digital, 7 physical only and 3 designers who will activate through a physical evening event only.

The LFW digital platform, launched in June, will continue to serve as the Official Digital Hub and will be freely accessible to everyone, industry professionals and global fashion consumers alike. The platform will host exclusive multimedia content from designers and brand partners, enabling collaboration and bringing together fashion, culture and technology.

Fortunately for the British Fashion Industry, London Fashion Week is one of the few international events to still be going ahead in London.  The face of fashion is changing during the COVID-19 pandemic, designers and brands are re-evaluating how to best go forward. During these tough times, the positive news has been the opportunity for the fashion industry to press the restart button on the need for live fashion events. This is an opportunity to drive change, collaborate and innovate in ways that will establish long-term benefits, develop new sustainable business models and boost the industry’s economic and social power. The British Fashion Industry faces enormous challenges due to the impact of COVID-19 and the BFC is working closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to mitigate these challenges and support a sector which in 2019 contributed £35 billion to the UK economy and employs over 890,000 people (Oxford Economics, 2020).

London Fashion Week September 2020 takes place from Thursday 17th – Tuesday 22nd September 2020.

THE LFW DESIGNER SCHEDULE

This season, the schedule has been split into three sections and includes brands showing digitally, physically or both. All digital activations, will be accessible online at London Fashion Week.

The BFC worked very closely with DCMS to establish guidelines on social distancing to guarantee the safety of both the guests and those working at the physical events.

LFW September 2020 will kick off with Burberry, hosting a livestream on Thursday 17th September.

Physical events this season will include a hybrid of appointments, exhibitions, presentations, and socially distanced catwalk shows. Internationally celebrated brands Eudon Choi, Molly Goddard and Victoria Beckham will return to the schedule with salon shows/presentations while brands including Christopher Kane, David Koma, Edeline Lee, Emilia Wickstead, ERDEM, Halpern, Margaret Howell, Paul Costelloe, PREEN by Thornton Bregazzi, ROKSANDA, Sharon Wauchob, Simone Rocha, Supriya Lele, Temperley London and TOGA will present their new collections by invitation-only appointments. Bora Aksu, Mark Fast and PRONOUNCE will be hosting socially distanced catwalk shows. Bethany Williams, Emilio de la Morena, paria /FARZANEH, Osman, University of Westminster MA Menswear are also planning physical activations on-schedule. Agne Kuzmickaite, Cyberdog X Kappa, Ingrid Kraftchenko and Kaushik Velendra, will activate through physical evening events.

London Fashion Week show 

Designers with a digital only presence include 16ARLINGTON, 1×1 Studio, 8ON8, ACCIDENTAL CUTTING, ART SCHOOL, BIANCA SAUNDERS, Burberry, Charlotte Knowles, Choose Love, CONSTANÇA ENTRUDO, DANSHAN, Edward Crutchley, EFTYCHIA, Feng Chen Wang, FYODOR GOLAN, Hill & Friends, Hillier Bartley, Jamie Wei Huang, JORDANLUCA, JW Anderson, KIKIITO, Liam Hodges, Luna Del Pinal, Lupe Gajardo, L.Y.P.H., Marques’ Almeida, MARRKNULL, Matty Bovan, MAXXIJ, Misa Harada, Natasha Zinko x DUOLtd X G-Shock, NAYAL, On|Off Presents…, palmer//harding, Per Götesson, Phoebe English, QASIMI, RÆBURN, Richard Malone, Richard Quinn, RIXO, Robyn Lynch, SONIA CARRASACO, Stephen Jones Millinery, Susan Fang, Typical Freaks, Vinti Andrews, Vivienne Westwood and Xander Zhou.

Dame Vivienne Westwood on the runway.

DESIGNER PROFILES

Over 170 additional designers will be activating their profile pages with introductions to the brands, their latest work, their social media activity and with links to line sheets and contacts for sales and press requests.

For a second season, the BFC is working with JOOR to provide a digital wholesale solution for designers. The JOOR platform will host a LFW landing page with editorial categories for LONDON show ROOMS, Menswear and Womenswear. Any LFW designers who have profiles on JOOR will have links on their designer profiles to access JOOR.

DIGITAL CONTENT: THE EXPLORE SECTION OF LONDON FASHION WEEK

The home of LFW Digital, Explore tells the story of London’s individuals and businesses, rich in creativity and culture. The Explore section is made up of content created by the BFC, the designers and a number of brand partners.

Following are a few of the digital highlights that are coming up during London Fashion Week.

British Fashion Council Fashion Forum Podcast: The BFC launches the second installment of BFC Fashion Forum, a podcast series exploring the fashion industry, through themes of technology, music and creativity. Episodes include Charles Jeffrey in conversation with Matty Bovan and Fabio Piras; Elgar Johnson in conversation with Priya Ahluwalia and Gary Armstrong; Alastair McKimm in conversation with Evan Mock and Jordan Vickors and Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in conversation with Campbell Addy. All episodes are available here.

British GQ – To celebrate LFW, British GQ meets Danxian Liu and Shan Peng from emerging menswear brand Danshan for an interview for the LFW Handbook, the official guide of the event.

Designer Diaries – Returning ahead of LFW September 2020, the second series of Designer Diaries invites viewers behind the scenes and inside the lives of eight designers: Art School, Edeline Lee, Helen Kirkum, Liam Hodges, Luna Del Pinal, Olubiyi Thomas, PRONOUNCE and RÆBURN, promoting British design, craftmanship and creativity.

Evening Standard – To celebrate the return of ES Magazine, Evening Standard will bring its renowned ‘My London’ feature on the LFW schedule for the first time ever on Friday 18th September. Make sure to tune in and find out why our star loves the city, their favourite hide-outs, their most iconic Londoner and the question that always bring the most creative answers, which spot in the city they’d most like to be buried.

FASHION ZOO – For the first time ever, FASHION ZOO is an Official Partner of LFW. FASHION ZOO will host a talk on schedule on ‘Sustainability and Fashion’, filmed at FASHION ZOO in China this September. Speakers include Simon Collins (Founder & CEO, Global Design Education Platform WeDesign), Casey Hall (Asia Correspondent for Business of Fashion Global), Masha Ma (Fashion Designer) and Yong Li (Wolford GM of Greater China).

JD.COM, INC.- JD.COM, INC & Hu Bing – LFW Ambassador Hu Bing will create four films to celebrate and spotlight three key British brands which have flagship stores on JD.COM, INC. This season, JD.COM, INC will have a LFW branded landing page on JD.COM, INC that will highlight LFW designers available to purchase on JD.COM, INC. Content created by JD.COM, INC stocked designers for the LFW schedule will go live on JD.COM, INC at the same time as the LFW Schedule. JD.COM, INC will also host the Hu Bing films on their platform. Consumers will be able to then shop the designers’ collections through the JD.COM, INC site.

LAVAZZA – LAVAZZA Coffee have teamed up with David Koma to celebrate the craftsmanship and creativity between fashion design and coffee making. Tune in to watch the film on the Official LFW Schedule and for competition details to win a LAVAZZA at home kit and piece from David Koma’s SS20 collection.

Mercedes-Benz – For the first time ever Mercedes-Benz has created a unique and engaging film to feature on the LFW Schedule. Richard Biedul speaks with menswear designer Oliver Spencer about all things fashion and sustainability.

‘Music Meets Fashion Competition’:  MTV, The British Fashion Council, River Island and ICEBERG have announced the names of the five finalists for the ‘Music Meets Fashion Competition’. Fashion students from the UK and select International Design Schools were invited earlier this year to design a line inspired by MTV that merges music, fashion and sustainability. The five finalists were handpicked from hundreds of global submissions, resulting in students from the UK, USA and Mexico. The finalists will present their catwalk designs on the LFW schedule with a visual, storytelling digital piece created by MTV Breaks. The winner will present their full range at LFW February 2021 and their commercial collection will be sold through global retailer, River Island, and receive a number of other invaluable experiences.

TONI&GUY – Join TONI&GUY for a behind the scenes, retrospective look into London Fashion Week. Celebrating their 15-year partnership with LFW, TONI&GUY will create a film to explore the relationship between fashion and hair, with LFW designers. TONI&GUY are also supporting hair styling for a number of London Fashion Week designer’s content this season.

Voices of London Fashion Week – a short film featuring over 50 participants including Angelica Cheung, Aweng Chuol, David Koma, Dennis Okwera, Dylan Jones, Edward Crutchley, Hu Bing, Ida Petersson, Jodie Harsh, Laura Brown, Lynn Jaeger, Mia Kong, Mickey Boardman, Michael Halpern, Natalie Kingham, Queennie Yang, Sara Maino, Sophia Neophitou, Stavros Karelis, Stephanie Phair and Wilson Oryema discussing what LFW means to them and what compels them to create.

What Does Fashion Sound Like For the second season, London Fashion Week launches its playlist series, ‘What Does Fashion Sound Like?’ as artists and designers explore how music helps to express their individual style and personal influences. The playlists feature artist and designers including AUDI0COMINGS00N, Aries Arise x Lava La Rue, Honey Dijon, Louie Banks, Richard Quinn x Haim and Zebra Katz.

Alongside existing Official Partners of London Fashion Week, British GQ, Evening Standard, JD.COM, INC, JOOR, LAVAZZA, Mercedes-Benz and TONI&GUY, BFC welcomes two new Official Partners this season, FASHION ZOO and IBM. Partnering to grow the LFW Digital Platform through new innovations, as well as supporting new designers with their own digital roadmap and business strategy during these challenging times, IBM is supporting the digital London Fashion Week experience, enabling designers to showcase their stories through multimedia content and ensuring an engaging user experience for the global fashion audience.

For a second season, interactive shoppable video tagging software Smartzer will provide clickable videos on the London Fashion Week highlights films. BFC is also delighted to announce Vocast as the Official Press Portal provider for LFW. For the first time, Vocast will host the LFW image bank, press releases and films, available to industry behind a log in wall on the British Fashion Council and London Fashion Week websites.

To see the schedule of London Fashion Week shows for this season, and check out the Explore Content Platform, visit London Fashion Week online.