Fashionable people wait in line for an event in New York for Fashion Week. photo by Corey Tenold.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many changes to how designers presented their collections, making this Fashion Week one to remember.
Usually, New York Fashion Week is a week-long, semi-annual event where the most important names in fashion get invited to witness the new collections of many designers in person. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many changes have had to be made to how designers are presenting their collections.
Across the globe, designers have had to get creative when figuring out how to present their fall and winter 2021 collections, not just for New York Fashion Week, but for Paris, London and Milan Fashion Weeks as well. Most designers, especially more well known ones, live-streamed their shows for VIPs and other important guests and then posted the live stream online for everyone to access. Other designers offered limited seating, only inviting the most important names in fashion, including Valentino, Balmain, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. Other people who are not as important but still have a love for fashion are able to access these shows via the New York Fashion Week website or app. The Vogue Runway app is also another great resource that is free for everyone to view the collections. While many negatives came out of this pandemic for the fashion community, increased access to shows was definitely a bonus. Besides thinking of ways to present their collections virtually, designers have also become more creative with their clothing designs.
Now that they are an important part of everyone’s outfits across the world, many designers have begun including masks in their designs. Whether they make a mask to match or they actually incorporate the mask into the outfit, masks have become a new way to make a statement. Other than masks, designers have put more passion and important messages into their designs. With many social and environmental problems being brought to people’s attention in 2020 and 2021, designers took this opportunity to voice their own opinions and beliefs through their clothing. For example, in Christian Siriano’s spring and summer 2021 show, many of the pieces were made with a fabric that said the word “Vote” all over it, which portrayed a more serious political issue, while Vivienne Westwood’s fall and winter 2021 show portrayed a more fun light hearted message about true punk. Overall, new trends and more passion emerged from the pandemic.
While this year presented many challenges for the fashion community, there were many benefits that came out of it, such as more access to shows for everyone and more passionate work from designers. This was a successful season for all designers, even in a very abnormal situation. After all of the hard work from everyone involved in New York Fashion Week, these 2021 shows will definitely be unforgettable.
