On March 2, the cancellation of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo for the 2020 Autumn/Winter season was confirmed, finally drawing to a close all the speculation about its planned mid-March shows during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
Why so late to cancel? The fashion system is always thinking one season ahead. March's fashion week offerings, for example, would be for sale from September, to be worn by the well-dressed through to early 2021. Though the collections are shown to the industry in March, they would have been put into sample production at least a month in advance, and before that they would have been designed, mulled over, and gone through a trend consultation process.
Slamming on the brakes to fashion week after all that spells financial disaster for many and, given the output is seasonal, it can't just be knocked back a couple of months.
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