Paris Fashion Week Keeps Calm and Carries On Amidst Anxiety About Covid-19

Will there be moon-print respiratory masks on every seat at the Marine Serre show tomorrow morning? Probably not, though attendees at Paris Fashion Week are likely to see more of Serre’s masks—and plenty of other respiratory masks—during the shows this season. Following an outbreak of Covid-19, as coronavirus has been renamed, just outside Milan, the fashion community is taking extra precautions to protect itself from the spread of the disease. As Milan Fashion Week came to a close in a frenzy of worry, many guests changed their flights out of Milan in fear of a potential travel ban—at least 10 nearby towns were already on quarantine—while others resorted to other modes of transportation to Paris, whether by train (a cool seven hours) or by car (a much longer 10). That level of concern was spurred in part by Giorgio Armani’s late-night Saturday decision to host his Sunday fall 2020 show for an empty auditorium on account of the virus.

But such extreme precautions have not reached Paris just yet. As 10 days of shows begin tonight with Mame Kurogouchi and Kenneth Ize, Paris’s Fédération de la Haute Couture de la Mode is operating business as usual. A representative for the FHCM told Vogue Runway, “We are always in contact with health authorities and ready to follow any order they may give,” but as of yet there is nothing to worry about in the City of Light. Representatives for the major PR houses in Paris have also reported that all shows are going along as planned.

Still, as attendees arrive in Paris from Milan, worry is spreading within the fashion community about the potential of asymptomatic spread of Covid-19. Condé Nast’s Milan office has been closed and its employees advised to work from home, while most of our editors traveling have mostly sworn off greetings of the Parisian (air kiss) and American (hand-shake) variations. (This will be a long week of distant nods and smiles, for sure.) For its part, the World Health Organization advises people to employ standard practices: frequent hand-washing, not touching one’s face, and not coming into close contact with people with respiratory infections or with wild animals.

Even with no reported cases of the virus in Paris as yet, the ramifications of Covid-19 will still be felt during the shows. Last evening the Chambre Syndicale announced that planned PFW shows from Shiatzy Chen, Masha Ma, Calvin Luo, and Jarel Chan would be canceled, with the organization helping to support those brands via social media. Uma Wang has transitioned its scheduled runway show into a presentation. The Chambre Syndicale will also be increasing social media live-streaming and posting on its channels, including Weibo and Douyin.