LONDON. After two years of restrictions and digital fashion shows, the live catwalk is finally back as the protagonist of London fashion week. From February 18th to Tuesday 22nd, around 130 international brands bring their new spring and winter collections to the stage, regardless of gender and season. If in autumn the digital calendar was still the norm, this new fashion week is divided in half, because there is someone who has still chosen streaming, continuing the line of the last seasons hit by the pandemic. The DiscoveryLab of the British Fashion Council, a launching platform for the very young talents discovered by the British fashion institution: 15 selected designers including Christoph Ritter Studio, Ester Kubisz, Ex-A Studio and Saskia will launch the new creations, available online for the following days and accessible to all. The great names of English fashion have almost all chosen the classic live catwalk: in the next few days we will see Erdem, Halpern, Richard Quinn, Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha and David Koma, with Burberry absent from the London calendar. No masks and distance, to access you just need an invitation and a double vaccination certificate or a quick test, following the guidelines of the British government which on Monday will announce the new Covid strategy, part of the Johnson “living with Covid” plan, that is nothing more restrictions.
London is in fact a party city, which is no longer afraid of the virus: Friday’s opening ceremony, which began under the stormy sky of Hurricane Eunice, was a success: celebrating British fashion but making it accessible to all, democratizing it . This is how the city is filled with in-store events, in Mayfair stores such as Ferragamo, Browns Fashion or Lacoste that invite visitors who buy during the week to celebrate with parties, music and gifts. The free weekly «Time Out» has also launched a guide on how to have fun during the fashion week, without invitations or names on the guest list: the party is now for everyone. The English brand Roxanda has also launched an exclusive NFT in collaboration with the Institute of Digital Fashion: a digital dress exclusively on the maison’s website, available for purchase by all, which will make its debut on the catwalk during the highly anticipated show scheduled for Monday. The dress will then also be wearable in the metaverse. Could next fashion week be celebrated directly in the metaverse? For now it remains live, with home and media hub in the most famous department store in the city, Selfridges.