London Fashion Week to go gender neutral

London Fashion Week will become gender-neutral for 12 months as the British Fashion Council abandons binary shows starting this June.

The move, announced by the council in a news statement Tuesday, effectively presses pause on London Fashion Week Men's, which started in 2012 to give designers a distinct platform to grow the industry.

The combined menswear and womenswear format comes as the global fashion industry contends with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut stores worldwide, forcing retailers to cancel orders and find other savings as sales fall.

The first combined London Fashion Week starts on June 12 and will be digital-only due to strict UK lockdown rules that prevent public gatherings of more than two people.

The move to a digital format fits the same theme of using resources wisely, though worldwide travel bans and lockdowns gave organizers little choice during the pandemic.

The UK has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, recording more than 16,000 deaths as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

[Source: CNN Fashion]