The British Fashion Council (BFC) has announced that the next edition of London Fashion Week will take place from Friday 19th to Tuesday 23rd February 2021, with menswear designers being encouraged to take part in the February event. London Fashion Week will run as a digital first event on www.londonfashionweek.co.uk with scaled back physical activations.
The decision to move the traditional menswear showcase from January to February in 2021 was made in light of the current environment surrounding Covid-19, challenges around the movement of goods, samples and people post Brexit, and following roundtables with designers as well as conversations with sales showrooms. The BFC is committed to supporting British menswear designer businesses to show and sell their collections and will work with them on finding the best solutions to enable them to share sales materials with international buyers ahead of the February shows. The organisation will work on a sales focused campaign aimed at the industry through January 2021, using the London Fashion Week platform to drive reach to the designers’ online showrooms and physical sales contacts.
Caroline Rush, BFC Chief Executive commented: “As the fashion industry moves towards a more sustainable and responsible future in line with the newly formed Institute of Positive Fashion, our aim is to continue to redefine our fashion week model, embracing digital and technological innovation while offering ideas and solutions that will work for all designer businesses. Moving LFWM into LFW in February will continue to de-gender LFW, allow designers greater flexibility to consider what collection they show when and minimise travel requirements, taking us one step closer to a more sustainable future.”
As the British Fashion Council and London Fashion Week continue to look at the future and the opportunity to change, collaborate and innovate, all of London’s Fashion Weeks will be open to all genders and seasons, which for 2021 will be February (19th – 23rd), June (11th – 14th) and September (17th – 21st ). London Fashion Week January 2022 will be reviewed next year.
