What does a fashion week look like without fashion shows?
That’s the curveball COVID-19 tossed at designers worldwide this fall. Pittsburgh Fashion Week responded last week with a dynamic mix of digital content that style enthusiasts could safely enjoy from the comfort of their own homes.
There was an easy-to-follow format for each day of the week that the Downtown Community Development Corp. organized with a team of collaborators. There was a short daily overview video of each day’s highlights featuring Executive Director John Valentine and Gina Vensel, owner of Easy Street Promotions. These videos were filmed at Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, which produced most of the virtual content for Pittsburgh Fashion Week.
Programming was divided into afternoon and evening segments that went live on the Pittsburgh Fashion Week website. Depending upon the day, these segments included spotlights on musicians, designer studio tours, fashion films and an address from Mayor Bill Peduto. The video streams also gave viewers a chance to watch content produced in other states as part of Pittsburgh Fashion Week’s new partnership with emerging mid-sized fashion cities across the country.
While these videos were packed with content, they ran a bit long for my taste (or perhaps my attention span for virtual programming is running short these days). While a couple days kept the action to 30 or 40 minutes, most lasted at least an hour. What I did appreciate, though, was that these videos lived on Pittsburgh Fashion Week’s YouTube page after the broadcast so they could be watched later. This also is a nice dose of exposure for the featured artists that can continue to live on the Web even after the fashion week festivities have wrapped.
Beyond these daily segments, there were a couple separate videos shared on YouTube of musical performances by Morgan Erina and Andre Costello with the Cool Minors. Pittsburgh Fashion Week also introduced a podcast series, “A Common Thread,” whose four episodes included discussions about vintage clothing, diversity in modeling and designing, and the beauty industry. I enjoyed that each one tapped fresh voices who shared something new. There’s a lot of potential to expand upon this podcast series in the future and to keep having meaningful conversations.
With this year’s virtual lineup in the books, I’m curious to see what direction Pittsburgh Fashion Week will take next year. Of course, that will depend upon where things stand with COVID-19 and the lingering public health risks it may pose. If that’s still something to contend with in fall 2021, Pittsburgh Fashion Week may benefit from observing what other cities have done so far.
During New York Fashion Week earlier this month, a handful of designers took advantage of the late summer weather and held outdoor presentations with smaller groups of socially distanced guests. That complemented its robust virtual programming. Perhaps that could be a nice hybrid format that could be done here in the future.
So how did Pittsburgh Fashion Week online compare to the ones in person? It didn’t, and that’s OK. I don’t think anything can quite take the place of the buzz and beauty that surround a live runway show. But I applaud Pittsburgh Fashion Week’s organizers for pivoting in these uncertain times and coming up with a variety of content that tried to offer something for everyone.
Sara Bauknecht: sbauknecht@post-gazette.com or on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG.
First Published: September 28, 2020, 11:00 a.m.