EXCLUSIVE: Etro to Host Coed Runway Show During Milan Digital Fashion Week

Click here to read the full article.

Etro has decided to go physical during the upcoming Milan Digital Fashion Week, running July 14 to 17.

The Italian luxury fashion house will host a coed runway show to present its men’s spring 2021 and women’s resort 2021 collections on July 15 at 10 a.m. at Milan’s Four Seasons Hotel.

“We decided to organize a physical runway show to telegraph a strong message of positivity, which is something that the fashion industry and Milan definitely need,” said Etro men’s creative director Kean Etro. “I think that after the lockdown, we are all learning to live our lives in a different way, immersing ourselves in a new reality that enables us, following specific instructions, to stay alive. I think the same needs to be done by the fashion industry, which, in keeping with the current situation and in observance of the safety measures, has to find a new normality.”

According to Etro, the show will accomodate a much smaller audience than usual, but it still represents an important step to bring the industry back to vitality.

“After all, we already restarted with new standards in the manufacturing laboratories and in the factories, as well as in the offices and in the stores. We learnt how to establish social interactions and it’s time to do the same with fashion presentations,” added Etro.

Following the coronavirus emergency and the global lockdowns, as many other companies, Etro decided to revamp the structure of its collections.

“Our collections will be smaller, more precise and very linked to our own DNA and to specific life occasions. Many of our men’s and women’s pieces will become carryover and won’t be discounted season after season, while fabrics will be more and more linked to the actual retail seasonality,” said Etro, explaining how the COVID-19 pandemic brought some changes to the company. “These months gave us the time to think and reflect on different aspects of our lives and of our society. This specific moment — so intense and so global — offers us the chance to grow, to become more aware about the way we want to build our future and to learn to understand our limits. I hope that the promises that we made won’t be broken. Everything is in our own hands.”

The runway show will be also available for a wider global audience since the Camera della Moda and the Etro digital platforms will livestream it.

“Today, our job cannot prescind from digital. Our company has been going through a digital transformation since a few seasons,” said Etro. “But I think that our decision to host a physical show demonstrates that we cannot live only on digital events, but that we all need real social interactions.”

While the Italian fashion chamber still has to release an official schedule, as reported, Dolce & Gabbana will host a physical runway show on July 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Humanities Hospital’s University Campus and the Ermenegildo Zegna brand will present its spring 2021 collections with a phygital show on July 17 at 3 p.m.

Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.