Digital Catwalks? Most Think Fashion Shows Should Go Online

The Covid pandemic showed us that far more is possible online than before. It’s true in the fashion industry, which is now seeing a shift towards having a greater digital presence at fashions shows, or at least the welcoming of a hybrid form. This April saw the second edition of the Metaverse Fashion Week, an entirely virtual show, which was less successful than hoped, with one critic describing it as “lonely, difficult to navigate, and pretty boring.” But while there are still clearly some details to be ironed out, these new kinds of events offer several upsides too: a potential reduction in emissions from flying, greater accessibility to wider audiences, and the opportunity for designers to connect to audiences in new, more targeted ways.

On the other hand, fashion shows create jobs and bring in huge amounts of money to the cities in which they are based. According to The Econ Review, New York fashion week draws in around 232,000 people and makes around $532 million dollars in direct visitor spending each year as well as $11 billion in wages and $2 billion in tax revenue annually.

So, are digital fashion weeks the way to go? What do audiences think about it?

According to a survey by fin tech startup Klarna and Dynata, a majority of consumers in Europe, the United States and Australia think that fashion shows should go fully virtual. The United Kingdom had the highest share of consumers agreeing with the statement out of the 11 countries surveyed (86 percent), while Finns were slightly less united, but still with a majority (63 percent) saying they thought it was a good idea.

The same survey asked consumers about the Metaverse. Again, the UK had the highest share of respondents who had already heard and knew about it (seven in 10), which was well above the average across the 11 countries of three in five. More generally speaking, New York was the most popular fashion week of the ‘Big Four’ (New York, Paris, Milan and London) among consumers interested in fashion.

At least 1,000 people were surveyed online across 11 countries in 2022, on four major themes shaping the current state of fashion: Music festival fashion, Fashion weeks, the Metaverse mindset and Gender fluidity.