Streaming Friday from famous people’s closets a virtual runway show
What will the fashion world look like —especially the runway-show part —in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic?
Right now, that’s anybody’s guess. But a YouTube special streaming Friday afternoon might offer one permutation. It’s a virtual fashion show featuring a slew of homebound celebrities, including Kim Kardashian West, Karlie Kloss, Ashley Graham and Hailey Bieber, modeling clothes out of their closets in an effort to raise awareness and funds to fight the virus.
The event, dubbed Fashion Unites, is the brainchild of Carine Roitfeld, founder of the fashion and beauty magazine
CR Fashion Book (and, for a few episodes last month, a judge on Amazon’s “Making the Cut” fashion-reality competition). It will benefit amfAR Against COVID-19.
YouTube’s head of fashion and beauty, Derek Blasberg, will host the half-hour program, which is described in press materials as a “self-filmed fashion show —captured by a diverse range of models wearing creations pulled from their personal wardrobe and styled remotely by Roitfeld and her team.”
There also will be behind-thescenes looks at the show’s production and “messages of hope and gratitude by designers and contributors for the real-life heroes who risk their lives fighting the pandemic on the front lines every day.”
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the special will feature “appearances, walks and words” from a constellation of fashion-world stars including models Alessandra Ambrosio, Winnie Harlow, Eva Herzigova, Adriana Lima, Joan Smalls and Amber Valletta.
Fashion designers in the house (well, their houses, presumably) will include Diane von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang, Virgil Abloh, Silvia Fendi, Fernando Garcia and Heron Preston.
In addition to donating their time and energy to raise awareness of amfAR’s new research effort to defeat COVID-19 (the organization was founded in 1985 to combat the AIDS epidemic), many of the participants (including Roitfeld) have donated money to the fund, and their hope is that you will have enjoyed the show at least enough to open your wallet and do the same. Donations can be made online at the amfar.org website.At a bare minimum, you’ll get to spend 30 minutes peering into the closets of famously well-dressed people.
And the best part about this virtual fashion show? Everyone who tunes in will have a frontrow seat.
Fashion Unites will stream on YouTube starting Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern. The exact URL has yet to be announced, but additional information (including, we assume, the web address) will be posted at the event’s website, crrunwayxamfar.org.