Fashion Week Istanbul planning fully digital season in October

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Aug 27, 2020

Fashion Week Istanbul is planning an entirely digital season this autumn - five days scheduled to take place between October 12 and 16; and the latest catwalk week to be staged fully on the web in the wake of the global pandemic.

The next season will mark the 15th of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul (MBFWI), which will be staged with the support of Türkiye Promotion Group (TTG), on international digital platforms.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Istanbul’s previous season was cancelled in March. This autumn’s fashion week in Turkey’s cultural capital will be focused on a virtual event space, featuring designer labels and designers presenting their ideas in digital format. The event calendar will also include virtual showrooms, panel sessions, podcasts and multidisciplinary collaborations.

“As the rules of the fashion industry are addressed on a global scale, priorities and expectations are redefined, and alternative fashion week calendars and contents continue to be announced in the post-COVID-19 period, MBFWI will also welcome genderless collections this season in addition to womenswear and menswear collections, which have been presented within the same calendar since the very beginning of the event,” Fashion Week Istanbul explained in a release.

Runway shoots of the digital event with more than 30 designers will take place at Galataport İstanbul, the city’s cruise ship port, and Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center, a former cannon-making factory first commissioned by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II. The idea being to promote the cultural and historical heritage of Istanbul via global fashion platforms throughout the digital fashion week.

Fashion Week Istanbul will also be “season-free platform” presenting the end consumers Spring-Summer 2021 and Fall-Winter 2020/21 collections.