(Milan) Italian designer Giorgio Armani on Tuesday announced the cancellation of his shows scheduled for January as part of Milan Men’s Fashion Week and Paris Haute Couture Week, due to the increase in COVID cases -19 in Europe.
This decision of the maestro, 87, was “taken with great regret and after careful consideration in light of the worsening epidemiological situation”, according to a statement from the group.
Armani’s fall / winter 2022/2023 fashion shows planned in Milan and that of the spring / summer 2022 haute couture week in Paris have thus been canceled.
Asked by AFP about a possible virtual presentation of the Armani collections, a spokesperson for the group said that this was not currently planned.
Armani is the first major Italian brand to cancel its fashion shows due to the new wave of contaminations, as was already the case at the start of the pandemic in February 2020. The resumption of parades in the presence of spectators, announced in May 2021, will have was short lived.
“Parades are crucial and irreplaceable occasions, but the health and safety of employees and the public must once again be a priority,” commented Giorgio Armani.
Menswear Fashion Week in Milan, scheduled from January 14 to 18, initially provided for 23 physical shows and the participation of 47 brands, including Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada.
Italy is one of the European countries to have paid the heaviest price for the pandemic, with more than 137,000 deaths, and is now experiencing a sharp increase in cases in the face of the surge of the Omicron variant.