Will Digital-only Fashion Weeks Inspire Or Fail To Deliver?

By Jodi Muter-Hamilton, Communications Director of Fashion Roundtable and Founder Black Neon Digital

As we step into a week that heralds arguably the most creative, exciting and exclusive event in the fashion calendar, London Fashion Week (LFW) created by the British Fashion Council (BFC), I analyse how the industry is quickly adapting to a digital experience for all.

With the pandemic forcing all industries to change, fashion has some unique challenges to solve when it comes to implementing a digital strategy across all touchpoints of the business. Fashion is an industry that relies on face-to-face meetings and co-creation, especially when it comes to luxury fashion, where there is often a very close relationship between designer, buyer and press. So, what happens when we cannot create, showcase, or network in person, does make it easier or more complex to do business? Let’s find out.

Do digital fashion weeks foster creative expression or limit potential?

Twice a year, designers showing at LFW prepare to transport buyers and press into their brand’s vision of the future through a meticulously crafted catwalk show or presentation. For many years this has been the traditional way to show next season’s collection. In addition, the UK is world-renowned for the creativity of its talented designers, stylists, hair & make-up artists, set designers, photographers, event & digital producers, PR agencies and many more who all come together to showcase fashion at its best during LFW.

The prestige that comes with showing On Schedule at LFW sends a signal to the world that the brand means business. Having invested a significant amount of money to show at LFW, the brands who are able to show season after season, communicate that they have the necessary financial backing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the bigger brands such as Burberry. This positions them as a credible brand who are confident in their appeal and longevity. Which they hope buyers and press will feel the same way too.

Keeping up with the fast pace of fashion is not anything new to designers. But, having to adapt from in-real-life to digital-only requires a new approach using new skills, contacts, and mindset. Yet, a digital-first approach is not necessarily new to all designers.

“We have been a digital brand since the beginning so for us it is natural to create within a digital space. It’s our native environment and the way we know better” explains Sonia Carrasco, a new brand who will be showing at LFW for the first time. “We always start creating from a digital point of view, even our prototyping process is in 3D. We live in a time (and we speak to a generation) where there is no difference between the physical and the digital world. Everything is connected”.

In practical terms what does that mean for a brand who is looking to strike a balance between cost and creative expression? “We prepared ourselves for both scenarios [in-person or digital only] as we didn’t know what might happen. However, as an emerging brand with a very limited budget, the digital option certainly gives you an opportunity to showcase the essence of your brand and to create something that better expresses who you really are and the direction you want to take”, Carrasco explains. “We have a wider network in the local creative scene which we can partner with and get awesome results out of for less, rather than having to look into venues, production companies, etc. These often end up eating out your budget before even starting, and then you lose the essence of what you wanted to create.”  

However, not all designers feel the BFC can offer them what they need when it comes to a digital showcase. As such, some designers have sought alternatives to showcase their collections. “After speaking with many talents on the calendar it’s been interesting to hear how they are navigating this new territory, and looking at the hand they have been dealt, many ignoring the BFC portal, unplugging and delivering small but emotive IRL physical moments, creating books and LFW packages”, says Leanne Elliott Young, Co-founder at Institute of Digital Fashion.

When we consider what would make a designer move away from the BFC’s global audience, we need to think about the balance of what is on offer from the BFC and what designers consider most important to their brand. “Last season we saw a positive shift in designers finding alternative solutions for selling creativity over clothing (Charles Jeffrey passing the mic, and Liam Hodges supporting LGBTQAI+ POC). However, the digital infrastructure needs serious improvement in order to house and support these voices within the digital territory [of the BFC portal],” explains Cattytay, Co-founder at Institute of Digital Fashion. “Fashion week last season existed through a 16:9 youtube lens and a schizophrenic LFW website. There was no sense of community, interactivity or excitement. Going digital does not mean uploading a video onto youtube. Where was the strategy? We have amazing talent to showcase, instead, they were squashed into a 16:9 portal!”, concludes Cattytay. 

If designers want to make the best of digital showcases it would seem they need to be extremely creative, quick to react and seek support from digital experts who can help them realise their vision to its full potential. 

How does a digital fashion week affect buyers and press? 

It is incredibly important to brands that they are able to share their creative expression but also that they nurture exiting and new relationships with private clients, buyers and press who all play a vital role in making their collections profitable.

“The act of seeing the product in hand is one of the key elements of buyership, seeing how the pieces can all work together for your assortment for your store, therefore, the showroom format remains integral” says Bev Malik, ex-buyer for Harvey Nichols, Browns and Founder of Bev Malik retail consultancy. “Zoom appointments are great in that they can give people a good look and feel for a collection, salesmen and women can give you a read on some reaction too, however, I think the brands that do manage to see buyers with their collections in a socially distant manner will fare better generally. JOOR is also a great platform and existed before Covid-19, that actually does make things much easier as it’s so streamlined”, continues Malik.

If we consider who the buyer has in mind whilst they are looking at the garments on a model, in a real or virtual showroom, we have to remember it’s more than likely that the end customer will be carrying out their purchase online. “It’s the first time buyers that are having to work so much on a digital format. However, if you think about the consumer, they are very, very comfortable shopping online, it’s a question of understanding their perspective as online shoppers and translating that into a buy” confirms Malik.

A few years ago, when sales were predominately made in a physical store, the hanger appeal of a garment was very important. It was something that a designer had to think about when they made the garment, what does that item actually look like on a hanger. Does the shopper understand what it is, does it look appealing enough to come closer and touch. Now, with more online stores than bricks-and-mortar stores, there’s an increasing need to make garments look good online. Black or white garments are hard to photograph. Voluminous shapes need something to give an indicator of scale and fit. How do you demonstrate the transparency or fluidity of a fabric? To answer these dilemmas, the industry has reacted by deploying photography and digital specialists who can make garments appear online as close to reality as possible. This is also why so many online stores feature product videos where a model is walking around in the garment, and why in the future we’ll see companies offering the option to make your own avatar walk in the clothes. 

The press have a different reason for needing to see shows first-hand, they need to be able to gauge how other press and influential people react to the collection. In essence, they need to be able to see if the designer and collection create a “buzz” worthy of featuring; known as “press-worthy”.

“Not being able to view the pieces close up for fabric and form could alter opinions, which may be particularly problematic for start-up designers who have not yet formed a relationship with the press. It also makes it difficult to really understand the quality of a brand and be able to predict if they will be a brand to back. Ultimately the question we need to answer is will they be a hit or not,” explains Heba Nouman, Fashion Editor of HIA Magazine, a monthly magazine for the affluent women and businesswomen in the Arab world.

Industry only versus open to all: What does the experience feel like for the people who’d usually sit on the front row at London Fashion Week?

“From an economic perspective, LFW becoming a digital-only platform makes complete sense to see us through this pandemic, but in my opinion, it’s a shame the exclusivity of the event has been taken away from the industry professionals with the shows now available to all’, states Nouman. “The atmosphere and spectacle of it all will be missed, not to mention the opportunity to network and create new business with global contacts.”

Having witnessed this first-hand over the past few seasons, it’s undeniable that being digitally influential has become a key requirement to gain access to shows. From young bloggers replacing respected editors on the front row, to models being required to add their social accounts and number of followers on their cards, we know that digital reach is now perhaps even more important than experience or even talent. Yet, is it such a bad thing to allow the public to enter the illusive world of luxury fashion? Maybe they have a digital reach as big as a prestigious magazine and can create a different kind of social buzz, making the brand a digital hit?

Increasingly LFW has given the opportunity for the public to attend selected shows. Previously only a glimpse of this was possible through London Fashion Week Festival, then later through public access to LFW Designer Showrooms. Now, the public will be able to access most digital shows online. This will allow the public to get closer to their brand of choice, but some industry professionals are left feeling devalued or perhaps uncertain as to what their role now becomes informing the narrative for fashion.

Recently testing the sentiment of the fashion industry, Fashion Debates ran a poll across their Instagram and twitter which found 94% of people saw fashion week as “overrated”. Although their audience is arguably made up of people who want to change the traditional fashion system, they indicate a shift in perception. “It's undoubtedly still the biggest event in the fashion calendar, but it seems it's now lacking in excitement and opportunities for brands, buyers and media, as well as gathering negative associations for its wasteful nature and excessive carbon footprint” states a comment taken from Fashion Debates Instagram post.

Are digital-only events a win for sustainability?

“The important advantage to the digital platform is that this new way of showcasing designer collections will hopefully be a more sustainable approach to LFW with many factors like, the number of shows per year, travel, and consumer waste all being heavily reduced which can only be a good thing for our carbon footprint,” highlights Nouman.

Producing digital fashion events, making 3D garments and building sales platforms such as JOOR all require electric energy, still generally speaking powered by fossil fuels. So it’s worth considering that digital doesn’t offer a completely carbon neutral, earth-friendly solution. Particularly if you imagine how much more time we are all spending online, our energy usage has increased.

Some brands are offering private studio appointments whilst others will be putting on socially distanced show in line with Covid-19 performance guidelines. However, the industry has much further to go to become more sustainable. From reforming the supply chain to not damaging the earth, digital is perhaps is a step in the right direction for some elements of the industry, but it will not resolve the industry’s wider issues.

Right now, the overriding feeling is that digital cannot replace the benefits of real-life events. So, perhaps a better solution is not to try and replicate the old way of doing business but use our creativity to make fashion something entirely new.