Video Can't Kill The Catwalk

Forced online for the first time in its history by the coronavirus pandemic, brands both in haute couture and the Paris men's fashion week presented videos of their collections instead.

Many fashion critics have expressed their disappointment after the showcase of the first ever digital Paris fashion week. Amongst them was international fashion blogger and fashion critic, Diane Pernet, who was not taken by any of the early offerings. “I am sorry, I think they can do more,” the Paris-based American told AFP.

“I am all into digital, but it is not doing it for me,” she added. 

However, head men's buyer for top French department stores Galeries Lafayette and BHV Marais, Laurent Coulier, could see otherwise.

“The great advantage for us compared to a normal fashion week is the time we save,” he told AFP. 

He also liked how some labels, like Y/Project and the young Paris brand Egon Lab had used their films creatively to show the uniqueness of their clothes.

Coulier said the films were very useful calling cards “giving us a good view of brands that we have not been working with already... so we can go and see them in their showrooms.”

Still even he admitted digital lacked the magic of a live show.

When asked on whether he would buy a collection on the back of an online show alone, Coulier was more careful.

“You can see how the garments hang and fall, but with digital you cannot touch or feel the material... that's what it lacks.”

Bridget Foley of the industry bible Women's Wear Daily, who like the others, felt the lack of the magic and feeling of 'being there'. There was one thing, however, that Coulier, Pernet and New York Times critic Vanessa Friedman all agree on ― digital has cracked fashion show's eternal tardiness problem.

“I'll say one thing... you don't have to sit there for the usual 20-30 minutes twiddling your thumbs and waiting for them to start,” Friedman tweeted. 

By Erica Pamela