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Fashion designer Tom Ford has cancelled his Fall 2020 runway show at the New York Fashion Week amid the surge in COVID-19 cases spurred by the Omicron variant.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Ford was set to close out New York Fashion Week on February 16, which kicks off on February 11, but the designer announced recently that the company’s staff has been heavily affected by COVID and will not be ready to hold the upcoming show. “I am incredibly disappointed not to be able to present a show during New York Fashion Week as I feel strongly that a live presentation is the best way to convey a clear message for the season,” Ford said in a statement obtained by the outlet.
Ford, who is also the chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which organises NYFW, added, “We have struggled internally over the past month with many of our staff out with COVID-19 in our design studio and atelier in Los Angeles as well as in our factories in Italy. We have tried everything possible to avoid canceling our New York show, but ultimately are faced with the sad fact that we will simply not have a completed collection in time for New York Fashion Week.”
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The designer’s latest collection will be released digitally, the timing of which will be announced later.
For the unversed, amid the COVID-19 surge in New York City, NYFW is still carrying on with mandatory protocols including vaccinations and masks indoors.
Luxury brands including Coach, Tory Burch, Proenza Schouler, Michael Kors, Anna Sui, Jason Wu and Christian Siriano are among those who are participating.
Tom Ford’s show has become the latest major event to have gotten scrapped in Hollywood including the Sundance Film Festival moving online and the Critics Choice Awards and Grammys shifting into March and April, respectively.
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