Gucci cancels cruise show in San Francisco as coronavirus spreads

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Mar 3, 2020

The impact of the coronavirus has struck the fashion world once again, with Gucci announcing that it has cancelled its Cruise 2021 fashion show planned for San Francisco. 

The Italian fashion house made the announcement on Monday, the same day that the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus in the US reached six. 

In a statement, Gucci said the decision to cancel the May 18 show was made as a result of "the ongoing uncertainty prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, as a precautionary measure". 

The brand continued, "a decision on the new timing and location of the show will be announced at a later date, once the situation becomes clearer. At this time, our thoughts are with all of those affected around the world." 

The show cancellation comes after Gucci held its Fall/Winter 2020 women's fashion show earlier this month in Milan. As of this report, the number of coronavirus cases in Italy is currently measured above 2,000. 

Gucci's decision to cancel its show as a result of the outbreak follows in the footsteps of several fellow luxury brands, including Chanel, which postponed its upcoming fashion show in Beijing, and Prada, which also chose to postpone its cruise show scheduled to take place in Japan, as a precautionary measure. 

On a larger scale, entire fashion weeks in Tokyo and Seoul have been cancelled due to the virus's spread, while Shanghai Fashion Week will now take place online only. Exhibitions affecting the cosmetics, watch, and technology sectors have been cancelled too, some of them being postponed and rescheduled for the summer when it's hoped the virus would have subsided.

On Monday evening, US stocks rose sharply as a result of investor expectations that the government and central banks will soon act to limit the economic impact of the virus on the economy.