Kendall Jenner Brings Burberry’s New Collection To Life Via Webcam

Kendall Jenner honed her already strong selfie game even further during lockdown, and now the supermodel has teamed up with Burberry to bring the brand’s new collection to life with the help of an at-home shoot. “Riccardo is an icon, so any chance we get to work together is exciting,” she tells British Vogue of working with creative director Riccardo Tisci on the project. Campaign images show Kendall wearing a bright blue and acid-orange printed bodysuit, part of the TB Summer Monogram launch, which also features a quilted towelling iteration of the Lola bag (a favourite accessory of Irina Shayk), and pieces made from eco-friendly e-canvas, as well as bold Italian-woven silk scarves, espadrilles and sneakers.

For the shoot, Tisci called upon photographer and longtime Burberry collaborator, Nick Knight, stylist Katy England and art director Peter Saville, who helped design the graphic interlocking “TB” monogram that Tisci used in the first Thomas Burberry Monogram collection for the house in May 2019. The iconic logo – which was inspired by the original Thomas Burberry motif – has been reimagined in a vibrant, summery palette of dark beige, azure blue, graphite, and cobalt blue with orange accents.

Restrictions in place as a result of the Covid-19 crisis meant that Tisci had to think outside the box for the launch, hence the campaign video created using a combination of real-life movement and CGI technology. In the video, four virtual “Kendalls” navigate a fantastical world of skate parks and swimming pools, each dressed in pieces from the TB Summer Monogram collection. The futuristic results contrast with the raw self-portraits of the supermodel, shot at home on her laptop.

For those seeking lockdown entertainment, the virtual world of Burberry can be further explored through “B Surf”, a water sports video game that has launched globally on Burberry.com. Players can choose an avatar and a surfboard, and dress their chosen character in outfits from the Burberry TB Summer Monogram collection before challenging their friends to a race around a TB-shaped track.

Margot Robbie Swaps Chanel At Couture Fashion Week For A Kate Moss Style Staple

The pandemic’s ban on public gatherings has caused Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week to go online this season. So, rather than jetting from Los Angeles to the City of Light, Chanel ambassador Margot Robbie is staying at home and tuning in to the digital download of the autumn/winter 2020 collection.

For Robbie and her stylist Kate Young, Chanel shows are a prime opportunity to cherry-pick looks for the actor to wear during the promotional rounds for her latest film projects. Such is the pull of the couture spectacle that Robbie spent her 29th birthday on 2 July 2019 on the Chanel autumn/winter 2019 front row taking in creative director Virginie Viard’s fresh twists on the house classics. A party in California was exchanged for a pew within the library-inspired setting – which was inspired by Mademoiselle Chanel’s 31 Rue Cambon apartment – and Robbie’s personal wardrobe of bright athleisure gave way to bouclé separates.

The stiff tailoring is aeons away from Robbie’s current reality. After ringing in her 30th earlier in the week, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star was photographed visiting a friend in LA wearing a black slip and furry slides. Gold stacking jewellery and tinted sunglasses accented her ’90s sundress, but the look was decidedly low-key and there wasn’t a classic Chanel flap bag in sight.

As coronavirus has also pressed pause on red-carpet premieres, Robbie’s need for a couture dress has been diminished somewhat. Still, there will surely be much for the silver-screen starlet – who once praised Chanel for its “powerful feminine standard of style” – to covet when browsing online on 7 July.

This Online Platform Is A One-Stop Shop For African Fashion

Dubbed the Wikipedia of young African designers, Industrie Africa launched a little over two years ago with a mission to challenge the perception of fashion on the continent. A virtual showroom of sorts, the site highlights the full breadth of African design talent with a directory of over 80 brands from 24 different African countries.

Industrie Africa is taking its objective one step further with a shoppable platform that brings those high-end and emerging labels to the doorstep of its global audience. “There’s been a seismic shift in the way African fashion is being seen around the world, and we just happened to be on the cusp of that,” says co-founder Nisha Kanabar, a native Tanzanian who gained her fashion marketing acumen working for Indian and American Vogue. “We really want to continue to disrupt the traditional world views surrounding what it means to be an African designer, shop African, or have an African identity.”

Given the wellspring of exciting new names from the continent, there’s no doubt that the fashion landscape is rapidly evolving. Just last year, South African designer Thebe Magugu scooped the prestigious LVMH prize; Nigerian designer and fellow finalist Kenneth Ize also made waves with his debut at Paris Fashion Week in February.

Kanabar and her then-partner Georgia Bobley originally conceived of Industrie Africa as a place for discovery, and that focus on the new and the unexpected underpins the shopping experience. Kanabar handpicked pieces from a list of around 30 labels, some established (African fashion aficionados will for sure recognise Nigerian designer Lisa Folawiyo, for example), others up and coming.

Of the newbies, Ivorian designer Awa Maite is well worth getting to know. Handwoven and hand-dyed by local artisans, her fringed maxi skirts and puff-sleeved tops set centuries-old techniques on an entirely new path. Nigerian shoe brand Shekudo is another standout. Its colourful made-in-Lagos mix-media slides and midi-heels give the current yen for minimalist ’90s-style footwear a fresh jolt, thanks to the combination of upcycled leather and aso-oke, the traditional woven fabric of the Yoruba people. “We’re catering to a more conscious, emotionally-connected consumer, one who doesn’t shop in a vacuum or consume content in a vacuum,” explains Kanabar.

Thanks to its partnership with DHL, which has built a robust infrastructure in Africa, Industrie Africa is able to serve international customers with surprisingly reasonable shipping prices, too: the flat rate for shipping to the US is $40, with Europe slightly lower at $35 (about £28). More than that, there’s a real commitment to telling the stories on the ground, and delivering editorial content from within the local fashion community. Says Kanabar: “We put ourselves forward as an African platform first and foremost, one that really connects the dots on who we’re speaking about.”

Burberry’s Immersive Digital SS21 Show Is Open For All

Burberry has outlined its virtual fashion show plans for its co-ed spring/summer 2021 collection: a digital-facing event to take place on 17 September, 2020. Unlike other solely physical or solely online shows planned for the spring/summer 2021 season, Burberry’s event seems to be a merging of the real and the virtual, with a release promising a “live physical presentation that is open for all to experience digitally.” Translation: Burberry is likely pursuing a hybrid show that takes place in the real world with elements streamed online to a global audience of viewers.

A release describes the event as being situated in nature around Britain – an homage to the house’s outdoorsy heritage courtesy of founder Thomas Burberry. “As humans, we have always had a deep affinity to nature. We have had to respect and rely upon its power for our very existence, whilst marvelling and revelling in its extraordinary beauty. 

Especially recently, we have all yearned to reconnect again and for this show, I wanted to celebrate these feelings by bringing our community together in a creative experience that takes place within the beautiful, natural landscape of Britain,” writes chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci in a release. As with all of Tisci’s Burberry runway events, the statement explains, this one will be carbon neutral (though it’s important to note that the metric is the subject of debate).

Burberry’s fusion of a physical and digital event is the rare “phygital” show on the fashion schedule so far. While Ermenegildo Zegna has promised a hybrid IRL-digital event in Milan on 17 July, many fashion brands are choosing an either/or approach, investing in a three-dimensional event that will be transmitted online through traditional methods (like Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci who will participate in Milan’s Digital Fashion Week this July), or a fully virtual experience that does not mimic the expansiveness of a physical event.

Fashion Weeks Are Going Digital: Here’s Your Indispensable Rundown Of The New Calendar

The future of the fashion calendar is uncertain. Each day offers new challenges for designers and their teams to overcome amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an economic depression, and a global social justice movement. Planning for the next season is no longer business as usual, but small steps are being made. After months in lockdown, fashion houses have returned to work in France and Italy with an urge to rethink everything, most notably the fashion show.

While the prospect of attending IRL fashion shows seems far off, designers are forming new ways to showcase their collections and express their ideas now. The fashion calendar is starting to take shape; here, a rundown of what we know, following the BFC’s first digital London Fashion Week from 12 to 14 June.

5 July

Ahead of the rescheduled Paris men’s fashion week, Hermès is livestreaming a digital experience tied to its spring 2021 collection.

6–8 July

In Paris, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode will host the first-ever virtual couture fashion week. During the three-day digital event, accredited couture maisons will present videos and content that will go live on a preset show schedule, emulating the format of a physical fashion week.

9–13 July

The FHCM has announced that the men’s spring 2021 collections will pivot to a video-only format this season. Similar to the flow of an IRL men’s fashion week, the digital week will be organised by time slots, allowing for back-to-back streams on one central platform. “Digital is clearly part of the shape of fashion to come and we will take it as an opportunity for innovation to complement tradition,” Ralph Toledano, the president of the FHCM, told Vogue. “This being said, [in the] last weeks behind our screens, we all felt that a dimension was missing: the sensorial one. This has tremendously reinforced our position that nothing will ever replace the unity of time and place. Shows are a major component of the fashion industry, and this will remain... Physical events will always have our preference, but as long as there is uncertainty, there should be flexibility.”

14–17 July

Italy’s Camera della Moda team similarly announced an online men’s and women’s fashion show format with new July dates titled Milano Fashion Week Digital. From panel discussions on social media to virtual showroom appointments, this season’s physical-digital showcase will allow designers to present their latest collection or something totally different. “Everybody can decide their own message. The advantage is that in a digital world, you are completely free. You find your way of expression. We said to everybody, ‘You have from one minute to 15 minutes, and you decide what you want to show,’” Carlo Capasa, the president of the Camera della Moda, told Vogue.

Ermenegildo Zegna is staging a “phygital” show to launch the brand’s spring 2021 collection.“I have always wanted to use alternative formats to communicate my creative process to an even wider audience. The idea that this season I will present the collection with a digital tool gives me great energy and freedom of thought because I can finally enter directly into people’s place,” Alessandro Sartori, artistic director of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, explained in a press release. The innovative-slash-intimate hybrid event will also celebrate the brand’s 110th anniversary.

17 July

On the final day of Milan’s new digital fashion week, Gucci is confirmed to premiere its men’s and women’s resort 2021 collection in the form of a digital fashion show. However, this will be creative director Alessandro Michele’s last pre-collection spectacle for the Italian house. On 25 May, Michele announced that the house will produce only two coed shows (one in the autumn and one in the spring) instead of five seasonal runways a year. “I’m passionate about fashion shows, but maybe we can be open to seeing them in a different way,” Michele said.

Date TBD

Michele is not alone in breaking from the fashion calendar. Saint Laurent, which is also owned by Gucci’s parent company, Kering, announced its departure from this year’s preset schedules and beyond. “Conscious of the current circumstance and its waves of radical change, Saint Laurent has decided to take control of its pace and reshape its schedule,” Anthony Vaccarello, the house’s creative director, wrote in an Instagram post published in April. “Now more than ever, the brand will lead its own rhythm.”

9–12 August

Editors, buyers, and influencers from around the world flock to Denmark’s capital city twice a year to take part in Copenhagen Fashion Week. This season’s event has shifted five days as a result of the pandemic. “We’re fortunate that the Danish society is opening up much more quickly than expected, making it possible for us to hold Copenhagen Fashion Week very close to the originally scheduled dates,” Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, noted in a press release. “All of our activities will, of course, be set up to meet applicable regulatory requirements.”

26–28 August

Stockholm cancelled its fashion week the past two seasons due to sustainability concerns and financial issues, but the Swedish Fashion Association is slated to resurface in the era of digital fashion events. Set to run over three days in late August, the SFA’s first virtual fashion week will cater to press, influencers and other stakeholders alongside consumers. In addition to prerecorded product presentations, designers will step into the spotlight during live interviews and themed conversations with Vogue editors.

September 2020

Known for his annual fashion show spectaculars, Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss is proving that playing it safe doesn’t mean cancelling all large gatherings. In light of social distancing efforts, Jean-Raymond is staging a full-fledged drive-in fashion experience tour to showcase his new film American, Also. “It’s always been our mission to show the amount of thinking and labouring that goes behind putting together a collection – we’ve been slowing down the speed of how much we produce and improving the quality of what we produce throughout the years,” Jean-Raymond told Vogue.

Jean-Raymond is not the only New York-based designer banking on something big in September. With the resort season more or less cancelled as a result of factory closures, many brands have refocused their efforts on New York Fashion Week. Veteran headliners like Proenza Schouler and notable newcomers like Collina Strada are said to be saving up for September, a strategy that is shaping up in Milan and Paris too.

In April, Pitti Immagine Uomo postponed its spring fashion week from June to September with the idea that some socially-distanced shows could take place. However, the organisation recently decided to defer all physical presentations until January 2021, meaning that the regularly biannual men’s fashion week would only gather once in Florence this year due to the pandemic. In lieu of June and September programming, Pitti Immagine will launch a digital platform titled Pitti Connect aimed at enhancing exhibitor connectivity.

Instead of participating in FHCM’s digital couture fashion week, Giorgio Armani will host his seasonless Privé show at the Palazzo Orsini in January. Joining Armani, Chitose Abe of Sacai will debut her couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier as his first guest designer in the new year.

Unlike the majority of brands set on staging something in September, Virgil Abloh is holding out until 2021 to present his own women’s and men’s spring collections. Abloh’s decision to wait until January means Off-White is officially experimenting with the see-now-buy-now calendar. The collection will available for purchase in February, about a month after the looks debut on the runway. While Balenciaga has not officially confirmed a new date, the French house has likely postponed Demna Gvasalia’s couture debut until 2021.

Cardi B’s Louis Vuitton Handbag Obsession Is Limited To Ombré Only

Cardi B joined the Hermès Birkin celebrity fan club long ago – see the Kardashian-Jenners and Victoria Beckham for further details – but, during lockdown, she’s formed a new handbag obsession. Over the past few weeks, the rapper has posted DIY home photo shoots featuring three Louis Vuitton tote bags from the LV Escale collection. Better still, Cardi coordinated her hair colour and nail art with the capacious leather holdalls.

First up, the pastel iteration of the On The Go GM bag, which uses the ancient Japanese Shibori dyeing technique to create the saturated colour that pops on Cardi’s Insta feed. The “Money” singer offset the unicorn palette of the £1,920 tote with bubblegum-pink hair, a lilac bikini and monster heels in metallic purple. The setting? Her marble outdoor kitchen gleaming in the sunshine, natch. Take two: the red tie-dye Neverfull tote bag. Cardi called upon celebrity nail artist Chaun Legend to paint the LV monogram on her nails for a matchy matchy snap of her ombré arm candy and its handy inner pouch.

The culmination of the sunset look, centred around the Neverfull, was a post of a pink-haired Cardi showing off her £1,150 purchase, as well as her refreshed peacock tattoo, on the balcony of her mega mansion. Another day, another matching LV tote and bikini pairing. For a video captioned “Leave my rolls alone”, in which she took down “body-shamers” commenting on her weight, Cardi paired a baby-blue LV monogram bikini with an ocean-coloured On The Go tote. The queen of clap backs even brushed a slick of turquoise hair dye through her parting to complement the fade effect on her bag.The subliminal message behind Bartier Cardi’s status bags: she’s putting her own (LV) stamp on summer style, and no one can stop her.

Jane Fonda & Lil Nas X Star In The Campaign Of Summer

As Gucci paves its own way towards a greener future – through seasonless collections shown twice a year and pledges to reduce its environmental impacts – the house is exploring how sustainability can power creativity. For its new Gucci Off The Grid collection – the first from creative director Alessandro Michele’s Gucci Circular Lines initiative supporting the brand’s circularity mission – it enlisted a galaxy of stars to model the innovative edit.

Jane Fonda, Lil Nas X, King Princess, Miyavi and David de Rothschild wear the capsule collection, which is comprised of recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials. It has been created with the Gucci Equilibrium – an umbrella term for the brand’s ongoing effort to create positive change for people and the planet – in mind. Shot by Harmony Korine before lockdown in LA, with creative direction by Michele and art direction by Christopher Simmonds, the campaign casts the new Gucci gang as metropolitan explorers.

Fonda perfects her power stance in luxuriously muted tailoring in a treehouse nestled within a concrete jungle; Lil Nas X sits a few planks down wearing burnt-orange cords and denim; and de Rothschild, a keen environmentalist, looks right at home in utilitarian staples within the green space. “The treehouse and the simple way of life it represents becomes a powerful metaphor for the desire to escape conventional life and enjoy the experience of living more Off The Grid,” explains the brand.

For Michele, “the collection is the result of teamwork; everybody brought something to it,” he says. “In the campaign, there is this idea of dialogue among people building something new. I imagined that we could build a treehouse in a city centre, all together, like kids playing in the park. Because all of us need to build this house or to find out that our planet exists, even where it seems it’s not there, or it’s far away.”

Timely musings, indeed. But the collection is chock-full of covetable accessories (the cash cow for all luxury brands) that will surely fly off virtual and newly-opened boutique shelves. From the buttercup-yellow GG tote made from Econyl and black leather trims, tanned using environmentally friendly techniques (Fonda’s choice), to Lil Nas X’s orange shoulder bag created using the same responsible practices, the bags are unabashedly bright. Also cheering? Korine’s campaign film, which depicts the cohort planting acorns, climbing trees and enjoying one another’s company within their lush makeshift sanctuary.