Virus closes doors at Armani show
Other Fashion Week events held anyway
MILAN — The fashion crowd put a defiant face against the spread of a new virus, packing runway shows on the last big day of Milan Fashion Week on Sunday, even as Giorgio Armani made a last-minute decision to stream his latest collection from an empty theater out of concerns for guests’ health.
Conde Naste artistic director Anna Wintour took her usual spot in the front-row of Dolce & Gabbana across from a gaggle of global social media TikTok influencers, none of whom were deterred by the spreading virus that had put about a dozen northern Italian towns on lockdown.
The Italian National Fashion Chamber said in a statement early Sunday there were no indications from health officials that changes in the schedule were called for, adding that it was up to brands to decide if they would go ahead. Only Armani made changes, among nine shows scheduled.
Later in the day, Lombard officials closed theaters, cinemas and other places, like discos and pubs where people might crowd, for at least seven days, as confirmed cases in Italy jumped to at least 152. And Venice officials took the step of canceling Carnival celebrations, unprecedented in modern times, in a bid to stop the virus spread.
Even as the shows went on, the coronavirus threat cast a strange mood over the Italian fashion capital. Despite pockets of activity around the venues at showtime, the city was more empty than normal for an unusually warm winter Sunday, when people from the surrounding province often come for a stroll or to soak in the fashion week energy. Inside shows, just a handful of people wore protective masks.
Asked about the impact of coronavirus on the fashion schedule, Wintour pivoted to the unexpected announcement of a collaboration between creative forces Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada at Prada going forward, calling it ”the most inspiring news of the season.”
“To me that just shows how we can all be much stronger together at a time when things are so politically divisive. The idea of two creative geniuses coming together supersedes other concerns,” Wintour said.
The economic impact of the virus on the wider industry remains a concern. At least 1,000 Chinese journalists, buyers and industry insiders couldn’t travel from China, which contributes one-third of global luxury revenues in domestic sales and shopping abroad.
The Giorgio Armani fashion house had announced overnight his runway show on Sunday would be conducted in an empty showroom and streamed for the fashion public on the internet as a ”preventative measure decided by Mr. Armani to support national efforts in safeguarding public health.”
It was the first time the 45year-old Milan fashion house has taken such a step out of public health concerns, though Armani did stage a show in an empty venue in Paris in 1998 after officials said the big tent posed a safety hazard. At that time, he distributed video of the event to fashion editors, then restaged it in New York to protest what he said had been a decision dictated by fashion world politics and not safety concerns.