Coronavirus masks the glamour of London Fashion Week
Article by Kaitlyn Lai
Edited by Rose Kleeger
A fashion show attendee wears a face mask outside a venue at London Fashion Week. (Credits: Henry Nicholls/Reuters)
With Chinese spending accounting for a third of luxury global market sales in 2018 (Bain & Company) on top of its huge manufacturing capacity, the fashion industry has been reinvigorated by China over the last decade. It comes as no surprise that London Fashion Week was not spared the impact of the coronavirus. Due to the epidemic, some Chinese models, buyers and media influencers were noticeably absent, and designers admitted the collections that they put on the catwalk weren’t exactly what they had envisaged.
“Due to the virus all the hand-crafted things [in my collection] that were made in China weren’t able to arrive, and all the factories shut down, and the couriers not working, so I had to cut down the looks,” said Chinese designer Wang Yuhan. Nevertheless, Wang Yuhan successfully opened fashion week with her first solo collection, which was inspired by both Victorian rituals of mourning and traditional Chinese notions of femininity, featuring frill layered skirt suits and floral dresses, fine lace, all accompanied by delicate pearl jewellery.
Wang’s designs on the runway at London Fashion Week (Credit: London Fashion Week Official Website)
Chinese outerwear brand, Bosideng, joined Wang in overcoming difficulties caused by the virus and kicked off their show on Sunday with a larger than life presence that outshone the media’s grim predictions about an epidemic-wreathed week. At the entrance of the Bosideng show, guests were invited to write down their wishes to China. Messages saying, “Stay strong, China!” “You can do it, China!” and “Best wishes for China,” among others, were written in multiple languages. As guests entered the show space, miniature Chinese flags could be seen on each seat and as models hit the runway specks of red could be seen on their cheeks – mini Chinese flag tattoos as a token of support to the country. “We hope that through this show, the world will hear the voice of China,” said the label’s brand director, Li Chuang. “Let the world see positive energy from China, and let the world feel the conviction that China is united when facing difficulties. China will never be absent on the international fashion stage.”
The Bosideng show at London Fashion Week (Credit: Bosideng and British Vogue)
Li’s sentiments echoed throughout London Fashion Week as the garments of other Chinese designers such as Dior-trained Huishan Zhang and London-based family-run label Lu Mei, glimmered on the runway. 5,055 miles away in Beijing, Angelica Cheung, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue China, continued to curate LFW social media content despite her absence. On Cheung’s Instagram, patterns and textures on the catwalk were captured by Vogue China’s editors from their quarantined homes in the form of intricate sketches, featuring the designs of Simone Rocha, JW Anderson, Burberry and more, which further goes to show how China will indeed never be absent on the international fashion stage, despite its trying circumstances.
Cheung, Editor in Chief of Vogue China’s Instagram Post featuring editors’ sketches of key looks at London Fashion Week (Credits: Angelica Cheung and Instagram)
The hottest accessory at London Fashion Week was not Lizzo’s micro-bag, but rather face masks – not your ordinary surgical face masks, but ones adorned with personality. One of the fashion flock was spotted outside of the British Fashion Council donning a black Off-White mask with arrows, perfectly complementing her smoky-eye makeup and all black fit. Another group of guests incorporated pastel coloured masks into their looks.
Fashion show attendees wears a face masks outside a venue at London Fashion Week. (Credits: Sky News)
Masks have begun appearing in our daily lives because of swine flu, Middle East respiratory syndrome and increasing levels of pollution worldwide and the fashion industry has not failed to catch on. In 2014, the same year Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang “declared war” on air pollution in Beijing, Chinese designer Masha Ma sent models down the runway with Swarovski-studded face masks. Within the same week, Ma collaborated with luxury online retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter Group to unveil a collection of special-edition facemasks featuring the designs of Qiu Hao, Sankuanz, and Xander Zhou. In the same year, designer label Marcelo Burlon County of Milan worked with Respro to launch a line of high-end face masks he displayed on the runway in Florence.
Are these waves of luxurious spins on face masks signifying bigger problems we have to confront?
last month at the Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish made her way across the red-carpet in a Gucci
branded mesh mask bedazzled in green rhinestones
Photo credit: Vogue Italia
From the streets to the runway to the red carpet, what was originally used as medical protection gear seems to have been re-invented as a niche fashion accessory. Fendi sells a silk face mask in its iconic logo print. Off-White and A Bathing Ape are known for their branded cotton masks that roam the sidewalks. For her Spring/Summer 2020 collection, Marine Serre collaborated with R-Pur to release a series of designer face masks with the brand’s iconic crescent moon graphics on the catwalk Paris Fashion Week. Just last month at the Grammy Awards, American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish made her way across the red-carpet in head to toe fluorescent-green-and-black Gucci, the highlight of her outfit being her branded mesh mask bedazzled in green rhinestones spelling out the iconic Gucci label. Eilish’s merchandise included the sold-out Billie green slime mask, in line with other celebrities in the music industry, such as Arianna Grande and Korean boy band BTS, who also launched face masks as merchandise. Whether it is a way for the fashion world to make something inherently unfashionable more tolerable, or an out-of-the-box method used to induce a virtue of necessity by turning face masks into trendy accessories in their own right, it looks like face masks might become the next it-item, and they might be here to stay.
Despite the coronavirus, London Fashion Week persevered. Shanghai Fashion Week, slated to begin March 26, however, was not fortunate enough to escape the claws of the epidemic and is currently postponed indefinitely. Questions and concerns are constantly being raised over consequences facing the fashion industry if the coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral out of control. As of the 7th of February, 24 of 64 Burberry stores in China were closed – a forewarning of the financial impact the absence of the world’s biggest spenders could have on the fashion industry. On the 23rd of February, Italian luxury fashion house Giorgio Armani issued an official statement announcing their decision to cancel their Milan Fashion Week show after the coronavirus claimed two lives in northern Italy the previous week. Instead, the show will be performed in an empty theatre and live-streamed to the public.