To be held at ArtScience Museum, the Louis Vuitton Women’s Spring/Summer 2021 Spin-Off show will be the first full-fledged physical fashion show in Singapore in the new normal.

There will be three shows – at noon and 4pm and 7.30pm – with just 112 guests each and a slew of safe management measures in place, such as temperature checks and SafeEntry scans on arrival. All surfaces will be sanitised between each show.

Guests will be segmented into zones, with no intermingling among zones, and Louis Vuitton face masks have been included with the invitations. Also, arrival, departure and seating timings will be staggered. Safe distancing ambassadors will be deployed at the venue as well.

The 41 unmasked models walking the show will be at least 3m away from the guests. They will also observe safe distancing on the runway. They and the backstage crew, including hair and make-up artists, will also be segregated into zones.

The final show will be live-streamed on www.louisvuitton. com so everyone can have a front-row seat from the comfort of his or her home.

A total of 69 looks – from the Spring/Summer collection, presented in a “distanced” show in Paris last October by Louis Vuitton’s womenswear artistic director Nicolas Ghesquiere (pictured), and a Summer Capsule collection inspired by the beach – will be featured.

It promises to be a star-studded event and the guest list includes home-grown actresses Zoe Tay and Rebecca Lim as well as singer Stefanie Sun.

For fashion editors, celebrities, influencers and clients who used to jet-set to fashion capitals for shows, this presentation signals that the industry is taking baby steps towards recovery.

The last time Harper’s Bazaar Singapore editor-in-chief Kenneth Goh attended a fashion show in person was a year ago. Coincidentally, it was the Louis Vuitton presentation, held at the Louvre, which closed Paris Fashion Week.

“I’m very excited to attend the show in Singapore for Louis Vuitton. It’s the first replica womenswear show by Ghesquiere outside of Paris in this new normal,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase the importance and significance of Singapore in the global fashion scene as Louis Vuitton will be live-streaming the show at ArtScience Museum.”

Goh believes that if Louis Vuitton’s show is a success, many other brands will follow suit.

“Nothing beats the excitement and the immediacy of a live show and to be able to see beautiful fashion on the most interesting models in a captivating space – it’s what sartorial dreams are made of.”

Dubbed a “phygital” show, the event will combine physical and digital elements, with green screens playing a major role.

They form a backdrop for the projection of footage from director Wim Wenders’ film, Wings Of Desire (1987). The romantic fantasy classic – which tells the tale of angels who choose to experience life, thanks to the power of love – was employed to great effect in the Spring/Summer 2021 show in Paris last October (pictured).

Louis Vuitton worked closely with the Singapore Tourism Board to leverage the country’s talent, infrastructure, resources and luxury consumer landscape to bring about this show.

Local models as well as Singapore-based ones will be in the spotlight. Notably, Singapore’s top international model Kaigin Yong (pictured), who was in Paris for fashion week earlier this month, will strut the runway.

Working behind the scenes are fashion industry veterans such as Singaporean show director Daniel Boey and Spanish film-maker Fran Borgia. Borgia – who has been based here for 15 years – will take on the role of live-stream creative director.

A version of this article first appeared in The Straits Times