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Coronavirus: Giorgio Armani postpones Cruise 2021 show in Dubai as outbreak spreads

Event has been rescheduled for November

Sarah Young
Thursday 05 March 2020 14:49 GMT
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Giorgio Armani has postponed its Cruise 2021 show due to the ongoing coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak.

In a statement, the Italian fashion house confirmed that its next show, which was scheduled to take place in Dubai on 19 April, will no longer take place.

“Due to the recent developments in the outbreak of coronavirus, Giorgio Armani has postponed to November the event scheduled to take place in Dubai on the 19th and 20th April,” the statement read.

“The decision has been taken as a precautionary measure in order to protect all the industry stakeholders, employees and guests who would be involved in the trip.”

The statement added that the event had originally been organised by Giorgio Armani to celebrate the reopening of the Giorgio Armani boutique in the Dubai Mall and ten years since the inauguration of the Armani Hotel.

The show is the latest in a series of industry events that have been affected by the virus.

Last month, Giorgio Armani also made the decision to cancel its autumn/winter 2020 show during Milan Fashion Week at the last minute amid the coronavirus threat in Italy.

Instead, the label opted to live stream the runway in an empty theatre across the fashion house’s social media channels.

In a statement made at the time, the brand said the decision was made “to safeguard the wellbeing of all his invited guests by not having them attend crowded spaces”.

Prada and Gucci have also announced that they are postponing their Cruise 2021 shows, which were scheduled to take place on 21 May in Tokyo and 18 May in San Francisco respectively, due to coronavirus fears.

So far, more than 90,000 people are known to be infected with coronavirus and more than 3,000 deaths have been recorded.

On Tuesday, health secretary Matt Hancock announced that the number of people diagnosed with the virus in the UK had risen to 51 and said that the threat was becoming “increasingly serious”.

Meanwhile, Italy has become one of the worst affected countries worldwide after an outbreak in the northern provinces of Lombardy and Veneto saw its death toll rise to 52 and the number of confirmed cases increase to 1,835.

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