First-ever online Paris fashion week clicks off

PARIS: The first-ever online Paris fashion week clicks off Monday with the world of glitzy runway shows thrown into an existential crisis by the coronavirus. Paris haute couture and men´s fashion weeks have been rolled into one, with labels making films to showcase their clothes instead of staging sometimes extravagant shows. The virus has not just made the traditional catwalk format — where a few hundred globetrotters are crammed into an overlit, overheated room and pummelled with thumping music — temporarily untenable on health grounds. It has also prompted an unprecedented bout of soul searching within the industry and led usually conflict-averse designers to call for a revolution that puts a brake on its frantic pace. Some even say that seasons — the frame on which the whole fashion calendar has been anchored — should be swept away altogether.