Italy will stage its first digital Fashion Week in Milan in July, as the luxury fashion sector struggles to rebound from the coronavirus crisis.

"This is a concrete response to the need for promotion and business on the part of brands," Italy's National Chamber of Fashion said in a statement. "Milano Digital Fashion Week" from July 14-17 will allow for the presentation of spring/summer 2021 men’s collections and spring/summer 2021 men's and women's pre-collections, along with a platform designed to give access to showrooms.

The digital offerings will include photo and video content, backstage interviews with designers, as well as webinars and live streaming of keynote speeches, visible on www.cameramoda.it, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Weibo and YouTube. 

The French Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion announced a similar initiative on Wednesday, with an online presentation of spring/summer 2021 men's ready-to-wear from July 9 to 13. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming ready-to-wear week and haute couture shows in Paris in June and July have been cancelled.

In March, Italy's fashion chamber announced that men's shows scheduled for June would be pushed back until September, joining the women's shows. The coronavirus emergency erupted in Italy in late February, during Milan's Fashion Week, causing some designers to present their runway shows without audiences.

Thousands of Chinese buyers and media were prevented from traveling to the shows, forcing the fashion chamber to offer digital alternatives to the runway shows and showrooms.