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.

Gucci's flamboyant creator Alessandro Michele has slashed his shows from five to two a year while Saint Laurent is pulling out of Paris women's fashion week later this year.

Its designer Anthony Vaccarello wants to set his own rhythm, a hitherto taboo idea which has become a rallying cry for many other creators.

Fellow Belgian Dries Van Noten – the revered "King of Prints" – is also heading up one of two broad-based coalitions calling for root-and-branch reform to simplify the industry and make it "more environmentally and socially sustainable."

(c) Daily Sabah

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