• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 27, 2020

In a collaboration that shows just how much creative freedom brands are discovering amid COVID-19 disruption, Lowe's is teaming up with New York Fashion Week.

While the big-box retailer may be more associated with drywall and gardening tools than hemlines and silhouettes, it intends to bring New York Fashion Week home with décor "edits," assembled through the design lenses of Jason Wu, Rebecca Minkoff and Christian Siriano.

"Often, creativity comes from constraints and right now, home and style are intersecting like never before," says Marisa Thalberg, chief brand and marketing officer, in an email to Marketing Daily. "Home has actually become the new epicenter of personal style. We see this partnership as an opportunity for Lowe's to surprise consumers, as well as the fashion world, by putting our brand at the center of one of fashion's biggest moments."

Thalberg says the effort underscores the brand's commitment to style, attainability and design. "We saw this first-of-its-kind partnership with NYFW as a chance to remind consumers that Lowe's has the affordable style they crave," she says. "If these designers can bring their ultimate runway visions to life with products we sell every day at Lowe's, we hope people will be inspired at the possibilities in their own homes."

The Mooresville, North Carolina-based retailer says it intends to reveal the collections at midnight on Tuesday, Sept. 8. All the home items, handpicked by each designer, are set to be shoppable from Lowes.com and streamable on Lowe's Twitter feed.

It's safe to say that the fashion world -- not to mention Fashion Week -- has never been so disrupted. The New York Times recently reported, for instance, that while clothing sales plunged 79% in April in the U.S., sales of sweatpants soared 80%.

But if fashion is sputtering, Lowe's is flying high in COVID culture, last week posting comparable sales results that jumped 35.1% in the second quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. Digital sales shot up 135%, and its earnings soared 75%.

And as Americans continue to invest heavily in making home more welcoming and inspiring than ever, Lowe's says it makes sense for the company to broaden beyond its DIY appeal, reaching out to the style elite.

"The intersection between home and style has never been more prevalent than it has this year, and partnering with some of the world's most modern and visionary leaders of fashion to demonstrate how everyone can bring fashion ‘home’ is very exciting to us," says Marisa Thalberg, chief brand and marketing officer, in its release. "Our homes can be our greatest form of self-expression."

Meanwhile, New York is preparing itself for a very different season. Scheduled for Sept. 13 through 17, New York Fashion Week got the city's greenlight. But indoor events are capped at 50 people, with no spectators. And strict health and safety guidelines are in place.