FDCI announces it will hold its first digital fashion week

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 27, 2020

The FDCI has announced that it will hold its first-ever digital fashion week to help the country’s designers restart business and give them a platform from which to showcase collections, during the coronavirus pandemic.

 
The organisation recently announced the news on Instagram, adding that further details will follow.
 
The FDCI had to cancel its autumn/winter 2020/ 2021 Lotus Makeup India Fashion Week scheduled to take place in New Delhi in March, as the pandemic had already began to spread in India. Many designers have their collections ready, but no official platform to show them.

“Since no on-ground fashion week is possible right now, we have no other avenue but to go digital,” the FDCI’s chairman, Sunil Sethi, told Vogue India about the upcoming digital fashion week.

“The purpose is solely for the business for the designers, and business can only take place if they showcase new collections.”
 
The digital fashion week will take place without a live audience and will feature digital set design.

“We have to support the talent that has been with us since the very beginning,” Sethi said.
 
The FDCI will collaborate with photographers, stylists, hair and makeup artists, and crew for the digital initiative. Fewer models will take part and they will be styled in multiple looks, according to Sethi. 
 
“We are also looking at digitisation of our prêt stockroom in the transformation,” said Sethi, sharing that a collaboration with an e-commerce platform could facilitate this.

The FDCI still plans to go ahead with its couture week, which is scheduled to run from the end of July to early August, and the upcoming spring/summer 2021 ready-to-wear fashion week scheduled for October.