London Fashion Week Merges Men’s Showcase Into February Schedule – WWD

Fashion London will be a snap party in the first half of 2022, with designers showcasing products as planned, as planned, and in Milan and Paris as they bow their heads in search of ways to get around restrictions Winter COVID-19 and the growing wave of Omicrons.

There will be no men’s show in the January and February editions of London Fashion Week is happening again as a gender rollout. While many designers start with those changes, others choose to do their own thing and theatrical events speak for commerce and consumers.

Who is John Alexander Skelton? known for his nostalgic approach to men’s tailoring, is now set to present the brand’s fall 2022 collection on January 8 with “a sort of ceremonial performance” in the crypt of St. Pancras in central London.

“I never wanted to be part of the whole fashion week and its circus-like presence,” Skelton told WWD. “My first two shows were not during fashion week and the rest were never scheduled, but had to be in fashion week since I started having a showroom in Paris to sell. row. There’s nothing subversive or exciting about fashion week: it’s the emblem of the establishment you can get, which doesn’t interest me. “

Expected to be present off schedule is male designer Craig Green. He intends back to London and presents its fall 2022 collection on February 9.

After staging several “show in the box” presentations, Jonathan Anderson is bringing his JW Anderson pre-fall collection for men and women to Milan as part of the official schedule Organized by Camera della Moda of Italy.

Bianca Saunders, who took home the ANDAM Fashion Awards last year, will present her new collection in Paris in collaboration with the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode on January 19.

In an earlier interview with WWD, “I wanted to be a household name,” Saunders said. Being in Paris is what really gives you more international credibility. ”

For the February edition of London Fashion Week, a host of famous emerging designers are scheduled to host physical shows, including Asai, Bethany Williams, Conner Ives, Feng Chen Wang, Nicholas Daley, Paolo Carzana, SS Daley, Saul Nash, Stefan Cooke and Yuhan Wang.

Anchor brands in London including Erdem, Simone Rocha, David Koma, Emilia Wickstead, Roksanda and Temperley, as well as rising stars such as Halpern, Nensi Dojaka, Knwls and Rejina Pyo, are also expected to return. .

It is not yet clear whether Burberry, the biggest brand in London, will show during London Fashion Week, which runs from 18 to 22 February.

Over the past few seasons, the brand has experimented with new formats and times. Burberry released the men’s spring 2022 collection digitally during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, while the women’s collection was a catwalk movie that aired in late September right after Time Week. The Milan page is ending and Paris is starting.

Due to COVID-19, Brexit and the usual ups and downs of designers, London Fashion Week has always been forced to adapt – and strategize.

The British Fashion Council canceled its January 2022 menswear showcase mainly due to uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, which has only increased during the holidays due to the Omicron variant. Admittedly, the first day of the show – right after New Year’s Day – has long baffled designers, the press and buyers, and it remains unclear whether those early January shows will never come back or not.

However, the men’s shows in June 2022 are prepared to proceed, COVID-19 permitting.

The BFC also said it had decided not to proceed in January after assessing the challenges surrounding the movement of goods, samples and people between the UK and Continental Europe post-Brexit, and following the Surveys and roundtables with designers, as well as conversations with sales galleries. . All goods entering the UK from the European Union are subject to customs declaration as of January 1.

London Fashion Week also faces bigger challenges beyond COVID-19 and Brexit.

The majority of brands in London are small businesses that increasingly rely on direct-to-consumer channels rather than wholesale. Also, staging shows is expensive: the bare minimum required to put on a proper show during London Fashion Week is at least £150,000.

While the BFC is doing what it can to provide funds and free space to some designers by partnering with sponsors like Clearpay and TikTok, it’s not clear that some brands spend that kind of money on a performances are often not financially justified.

A London-based fashion designer who has performed in many cities told WWD: “The professional audience is not here. Making a show here doesn’t generate the same amount of buzz. Instead of burning all that cash, I could allocate the budget elsewhere to improve my direct-to-consumer business.”