Another week of lockdown, another week of uncertainty and another week of our world adapting to crisis goes by. It was a week in which oil prices plummeted—for the first time ever—into the negative, Trump attempted to ban the issuing of green cards and the UK parliament held its first ever virtual Prime Minister’s Question session. The world of politics continues to spin but here’s what you missed this week in fashion.
adidas Originals launched a Girls Are Awesome collab
This week, adidas Originals teamed up with emerging media platform Girls Are Awesome to launch a new collection that celebrates the voices of women by putting them at the forefront and championing the voices of creativity. This collaboration between the German sportswear brand and the forward thinking collective hopes to increase female representation by inspiring, elevating and empowering girls and women throughout the world. The collection includes a range of womenswear, unisex, kidswear and footwear options. Brand director Søs Bondo comments that the collection “is a natural progression for the partnership and hopes to create more impact with an eclectic range that aims to reflect the multi-faceted lives we lead in 2020.”
MIA beefed with British Vogue
If I have to choose the vaccine or chip I’m gonna choose death – YALA
— M.I.A (@MIAuniverse) March 25, 2020
MIA, who is no stranger to controversy, seems to have a little beef going on with British Vogue. The singer was supposed to be on the August cover of the UK’s leading fashion mag, until the team decided her recent comments on vaccinations in our current health pandemic was too insensitive. Her tweet—in reference to coronavirus— from March 25th stated, “If I had to choose the vaccine or chip, I’m going to choose death.” She went on to publish screenshots in a now-deleted Instagram post of a conversation with someone informing her that British Vogue editor Edward Enninful no longer wanted her on the cover. He justified his withdrawal by explaining how the August issue was focused on chronicling the struggles of the NHS to cope while a vaccination is in the works and felt it was disrespectful to the frontline workers to feature her in the issue. She defended herself by stating all the work she had done previously by supporting Corbyn in fighting for the NHS and listing the adverse impact of vaccinations in African countries and India. She ended her post with, “Anti vaxer is your term. It didn’t exist before this binary addiction everyone has to separate everything into this and that. Anti this anti that. I prefer to not make everything so black and white.”
LFW went gender neutral and digital
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Amidst the ongoing coronavirus chaos, the British Fashion Council announced a relaunch of London Fashion Week—with major changes including the combination of mens and womenswear collections, as well as the (less surprising) move to digital. This new gender neutral platform appears to be a reflection by the BFC on the changing face of fashion, and is keeping up with the times while simultaneously delivering creative solutions to a corona affected industry. The event scheduled for June will incorporate podcasts, interviews as well as digital showrooms. Although the success of digital fashion weeks is unknown, Giorgio Armani’s online runway show to an empty room was an eerie reminder of the show-must-go-on spirit the fashion industry must embrace in order to keep themselves afloat.
Neiman Marcus made room for bankruptcy
Neiman Marcus Could File for Bankruptcy as “Soon as This Week” | The Fashion Law https://t.co/06R8FF3ube
— Stephan Matanovic (@MatanovicLaw) April 20, 2020
In what appears to be the latest in retail tragedy, the Neiman Marcus group (responsible for Neiman Marcus, Bergdof Goodman and Mytheresa amongst others) appears to be preparing to file for bankruptcy. With $4 billion in long term debt and the closure of its 43 Neiman Marcus and 2 Bergdof Goodman stores due to COVID19, not to mention the furloughing of one third of their employees—the group is under immense financial strain. Although they haven’t filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy just yet, the pressure of closed doors for an undefined period might be the last straw, forcing them to succumb to extreme measures.
Vivienne Westwood committed to Canopy
Vivienne Westwood has been at the helm of fashion activism for as long as we can remember, and her commitment to sustainability is not a new one. However, through continuous efforts she has proven time and again that her brand is more than just a fashion platform—and on Earth Day she reminded us of this by partnering up with the not for profit organisation Canopy. The organisation’s mission is protecting forests, species and climate’, and through their cooperation, the two hope to demonstrate the direct link between fashion consumption and deforestation. For their launch, the label released a video featuring model and activist Kai-Isiah Jamal reciting poetry celebrating the beauty of the natural world. Touching verses including: ‘‘If a tree falls anywhere, let it be from a wind too heavy or an age too old,” are an emotional appeal by the partners in showing us the environmental impact of a single black tee.
Burberry brought in ReBurberry
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Burberry continued to showcase its devotion to sustainability through the launch of its new ReBurberry Edit—a curation of 26 pieces from its Spring/Summer 2020 collection, all made from sustainable materials. Using ‘fabrics from the future’, the collection includes staples such as the trench coat, iterations of the iconic check in recycled polyester, and acetate sunglasses to name but a few. In addition to the edit, the brand also announced a new system of labelling, one which would detail how each piece composed of specific sustainable and social attributes. The labelling system is the latest effort by the brand to demonstrate transparency in its efforts of making sustainability an important goal to achieve.
