At the end of February 2020 when Covid-19 started spreading in the north of Italy, Giorgio Armani decided to hold his runway show behind closed doors. At the time, some deemed the decision as an exaggeration, considering that the Parisian runways continued without any interruption. But Armani seemed to have the right intuition as, soon afterwards, the north of Italy was hit by Covid and the region with the highest number of cases was Lombardy.
There is a sort of déjà vu feeling at the moment with Giorgio Armani who, at the beginning of the year, as a spike was registered in Covid cases over the Christmas holidays in Italy and in the rest of Europe, with the highly contagious Omicron variant forcing many to self-isolate, announced he was cancelling the house's runway shows for this month. So there will be no Fall 2022 menswear Armani and Emporio Armani runways at Milan men's fashion week (originally scheduled on 15th and 17th January) and no Armani Privé collection at Haute Couture Week in Paris later on this January.
An official statement from the company read: "This decision was made with great regret and following careful reflection in the light of the worsening epidemiological situation. As the designer has expressed on many occasions, the shows are crucial and irreplaceable occasions but the health and safety of both employees and the public must once again take priority."
Milan Men's Fashion Week is still expected to run from 14th to 18th January and other runways in the Italian fashion capital will still take place (provided members of the audience hold a proof of vaccination - the so called Super Green Pass - and wear an FFP2 mask), but Armani is not alone.
Brunello Cucinelli, the Italian king of cashmere, recently announced he is withdrawing from Pitti Uomo, scheduled to be held in Florence between 11th and 13th January. The brand's men's Fall 2022 sales campaign will instead take place as planned, at the Brunello Cucinelli showrooms in Milan, New York and Shanghai.
A Pitti trade show without Cucinelli is more or less an unthinkable concept as the cashmere entrepreneur is a favourite one with buyers and visitors, but more cancellations are expected as exhibitors are facing difficulties and dealing with infections and quarantines among their staff.
For this reason the much-anticipated event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ann Demeulemeester at Pitti Uomo has also been postponed. The celebrations are being moved to the June edition of the men's fair.
The fundraising gala of French AIDS charity Sidaction, traditionally taking place on the last evening of the January edition of Paris Couture Week and aiming to collect funds for HIV research, is instead postponed to July.
As more events may be cancelled in the next few days or weeks, and the fashion industry finds itself facing another uncertain winter, you naturally wonder if this year will definitely mark the transition of fashion from the phygital realm, so from a combination of IRL and digital events, to the totally digital format.
While it may be too early to find an answer to this question, something that is certain is that the main casualties of the cancellations will be those influencers whose sole skill seemed to be peacocking outside runway show venues or sitting in the front row. Brands have indeed been re-organising themselves in the last two years, constantly looking for fresh ideas and talents and investing their marketing budgets elsewhere. There seems to be more interest in dynamic TikTok users, professionals (think about actors, musicians, but also beauty specialists and renowned makeup artists) who openly support specific social issues and political causes. Brands seem to have realised that putting a product in a prominent series or on an album cover gives it a longer lifespan than a mere Instagram Story.
In pre-Covid times when a brand launched a new product, such as a bag, Instagram would be immediately flooded with pictures of this or that influencer posing with the new brand item. At first the item proved an irresistible temptation for consumers, but with time the strategy backfired, after all, why should we buy the latest Dior bag if the fashion house lavishly gives it for free to a vast number of influencers? So Covid-19 or not, there is definitely a thirst at the moment for something higher, more educational, inspiring and stimulating than just another picture stating "Look at me, look at what I got from this brand!"
We may be living in difficult times and we may need some optimism and escapism to run away from our collective anxieties, but I guess we also need genuinely inspiring role models who can show us more than just their vast wardrobes. The end of influencers, as predicted already in 2017 by fashion commentator, publisher, educator and trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort, may therefore finally be near.
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