Covid-19 tore up the global fashion calendar forever: seasonal collections and glitzy couture weeks are a thing of the past for brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent

Feb 7 , 2021

With events like Paris Fashion Week moved online and consumers more digitally savvy, the fashion industry’s seasonal hype machine appears a thing of the past

Gucci’s Alessandro Michele will create ‘season-less’ biannual collections, while Balenciaga and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White opted out of the calendar in 2021

In any normal year, come the last week of January, fashion editors, influencers and models alike would normally be flocking to the cobblestoned streets of Paris donning anything shiny, oversized or striking in preparation for Couture Week. By February, the same stylish bunch would jet-set to New York, where the likes of Phillip Lim, Carolina Herrera and Ralph Lauren would present their respective autumn collections.

In the following weeks, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks would follow suit, generating buzz in the industry and the media. Then the whole cycle would repeat come September. This was the way of the luxury fashion industry for decades – until the pandemic made it nearly impossible to safely gather large crowds in one place.

Frankly, seasons don’t make sense … It’s a global industry, and it’s a different season everywhere you look

Gary Wassner, CEO, Hilldun Corporation

A vibrant look from the Hermès Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Photo: Gaspar Ruiz Lindberg

One by one, revered fashion houses announced that they would skip the scheduled presentation during the pandemic while they sought a new creative outlet that would showcase their designs in a different way. Fashion weeks had always centred on what was new and trending, but the interference in the cycle, paired with the new stay-at-home lifestyle that the pandemic brought about, left designers and creative directors with a unique opportunity to reinvent the fashion event as they saw fit. Suddenly, adapting a fashion collection to the four seasons was no longer a priority.

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The fashion heavyweights in the luxury field interpreted this in different ways. Alessandro Michele of Gucci had some strong thoughts on foregoing the shows, which he shared publicly: “I decided to build a new path, away from deadlines that the industry consolidated, and, above all, away from an excessive performativity [sic] that today really has no raison d’être.” He proclaimed, through what seemed to be diary entries, that the fashion house will produce season-less collections twice a year instead.

Scottish designer Christopher Kane’s S/S21 collection is aptly named “Home Alone”. Photo: British Fashion Council

Another house under the Kering Group had announced its upcoming absence from Paris Fashion Week a month prior. The heads at Saint Laurent wrote that the brand will “take ownership of its collections following a plan conceived with an up-to-date perspective, driven by creativity”. Influential names such as Balenciaga and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White opted out of the traditional calendar this year, too, while designers like Stella McCartney announced she was not ordering new fabric for 2021.

“Frankly, seasons don’t make sense,” Gary Wassner, CEO of well-known fashion financing company Hilldun Corporation, said during a recent Sourcing Journal summit. “It’s a global industry, and it’s a different season everywhere you look.”

A classic black and white look from the Chanel Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Photo: Chanel

Experts gathered last October for a virtual discussion on how brands have realigned themselves in the current situation, prompting retailers to adapt a “buy now, wear now” model for their customers.