Giorgio Armani planning closed-door runway show over coronavirus concerns

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Feb 23, 2020

​Giorgio Armani has decided to stage his planned Sunday runway in Milan before no live audience over coronavirus concerns, as Italy suffered the first deaths from the virus this weekend.

“Giorgio Armani would like to inform you that (his) Women’s Fall Winter 20-21 show will be shown behind closed-doors, due to the recent developments of coronavirus in Italy,” the house said in a statement released late Saturday evening.
 
Armani had been scheduled to show his next collection twice with two shows at 4pm and 5pm in his Teatro Armani custom-built show space on Via Bergognone, the last major show of the seven-day Milan season that ends on Monday. Instead, he will stage just one at 5pm, behind closed doors.

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“The show will be live-streamed in front of an empty teatro on Armani.com, Instagram@giorgioarmani and on Facebook@giorgioarmani.The decision was taken to safeguard the wellbeing of all his invited guests by not having them attend crowded spaces,” the house added in the statement.
 
The decision comes after dozens of towns in northern Italy went into lockdown following the deaths of two people infected with coronavirus from China. An elderly man died from the virus in Veneto, and an elderly woman who died in Lombardy – where Milan is located – was found to have had the virus in a post-mortem.
 
In Milan, the city mayor reacted by closing down public offices.
 
Though buyers and editors were conspicuously absent from the Milan runway season, the shows in the Italian fashion capital have been full. Moreover, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has actively supported attempts to keep China connected to the runway season.

The Camera created a content deal with with Tencent, to provide Chinese language reports from all shows and backstage interviews with designers, along with live streaming.
 
“We have been reaching an average of 1.5 million viewers daily in China,” Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana President Carlo Capasa told FashionNetwork.com. On his lapel, he wore a badge that read: 'China We Are With You'.

On the matter of coronavirus, the Camera on Sunday communicated that the instructions of the responsible institutions were and will continue to be followed.

"Obviously, all the different fashion brands, who have a show today, will take the decision on whether to walk the show autonomically," read a statement issued by the organization.

"We know that Giorgio Armani decided to show his collection at the planned time behind closed doors though. Mr. Armani’s decision to safeguard his guests is appreciable, still at the moment we don’t have any other communication of this type from other brands or other cases linked to the current Fashion Week.

"We hope that the preventive measures issued by the Ministry of Health and adopted by the collectivity in the past few days, have been effective, taken into consideration that people have been sharing the same work environment. We are confident in the strenuous work of the institutions," it added.
 
However, the Italian three-day eyewear trade show, Mido, has been postponed. Originally scheduled to start on February 29, it has been pushed back to the end of May, organizers confirmed.