This season, a COVID friendly fashion month has once again taken over. As NYFW kicks off this week, most shows are taking their looks to a digital screen and previewing collections through the official CFDA show portal.
“Similar to last season, we’ll be shooting a look book with images releasing towards the end of the month,” Laquan Smith tells ESSENCE. “This week, the designer partnered with BMW to celebrate fashion and design. While this fashion week is not packed with happenings throughout, there are still a few socially distant moments that fashion insiders have the key to. “It’s been a privilege to work with BMW North America on this partnership and from the onset there has been a genuine synergy between their brand and ours,” he says.
Usually, Smith consistently host in-person fashion shows. The designer’s presentations are packed door to door with A-listers and clients of the brand along with the fashion industries most beloved stylist and editors. “I’m excited to share what we’ve been working on and hopeful to make our return to the runway in the near future.” Throughout the years, Smith has become apart of a small community of Black designers that carry a household name on the NYFW schedule. “While as a brand we’ve been able to persevere and navigate through industry challenges, we are looking forward to what is in store for the future of fashion, as diversity lies at the epicenter of the fashion community’s blatant inequalities,” he says.
For NYFW, BMW has created a unique series that illustrate the parallels between the fashion and automotive creative processes. BMW’s role as Official Automotive Partner of New York Fashion Week underscores the brand’s commitment to the arts and culture, an initiative to engage diverse audiences in new and innovative ways. “At LaQuan Smith, we’ve been fortunate during these challenging times to continue to grow and persevere during this period of uncertainty. We’ve picked up several new retailers and sold out at existing, which is success we’ve worked so hard for, but still feel so blessed to achieve,” Smith includes. “This ability to continue to innovate and persist is something we’ve recognized in BMW of North America, as well, making them a perfect partner for this series,” Smith concluded.