RVAFW plans for longer fall fashion week due to COVID-19
The 2020 RVA Fall Fashion Week will take place Oct. 5 –11. CT file photo.
Milan Brewster, Contributing Writer
This year’s Spring Fashion Week will be merged into an extended Fall Fashion Week due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the team behind the two events.
The annual event, hosted by the RVA Fashion Week Team, includes a week of events and shows during the spring. The event was originally supposed to be held April 27-May 3 and was later postponed to May 26-31 before the ultimate cancellation.
“It definitely breaks my heart knowing I don’t have any super fun events to look forward to this spring,” said model Khayla Connor in an email, “but it does give me more time to practice and get my profolio up for next season.”
The organization typically holds two annual events, RVA Spring Fashion Week and RVA Fall Fashion Weekend.
“A lot of people have asked me over the past couple of years when fall [fashion week] would turn into a full week,” said executive producer of RVAFW James Budd in an email. “Now just seemed like the perfect time to introduce our evolution into RVAFW Fall Fashion Week to complement our RVAFW Spring Fashion Week.”
RVA Fashion Week has a variety of plans for the merged event, including its annual Runway2Life charity fashion showcase, a comedy event involving fashion and education panels hosted by artists and designers.
Budd said this partnership allows students from the group’s partnership with Henrico Career & Technical Education and Henrico County Public Schools to be involved during the fashion week.
Chanel Green, a Richmond-based designer who has had designs shown in the fashion week, planned an educational panel for the spring fashion week. Green has been involved in eight RVA Fashion Week events, as well as New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week, but the Richmond event was her first experience showing her designs at a fashion week.
“I think it will expand RVA Fashion Week in a dope way,” Green said in a phone interview. “The model and designer call for the spring week had a crazy long line of people, which makes me excited for the fall.”
She also said that expanding the fall fashion events to a week gives more time and options for artists and designers to create in terms of more designs and events.
The 2020 RVA Fall Fashion Week will take place Oct. 5 –11.
