Los Angeles Fashion Week Is All Business; Lacks Pizzazz

This past week, the fashion industry in Los Angeles hosted its own version of Fashion Week to showcase the Spring/Summer 2013 Collections of local designers. 

Considering its Tinsel Town locale, LA Fashion Week (LAFW) did not seem to exude (to me) the same level of glitz and glamor in which the New York, London, Milan and Paris runway shows are so famous.

Ultimately, I am very happy to report that the Los Angeles fashion industry is alive and thriving in this challenging economy; however, I was disappointed because LAFW seemed to be strictly an “industry” event for buyers and media (which didn’t include me…wah).

My disclaimer is that I did not actually attend any of the runway shows or events because most were not open to the public and all of my research was done online with the exception of my opinion.

I was very excited for the 12-day event which started on Wednesday Oct. 10 and will conclude this coming Sunday Oct. 21.

I know LA is not New York, Paris or even London; but it is a pretty cool city and I was excited to embrace some of the emerging and local designers here in the City of Angels, which happens to be right in my own backyard. 

According to the LA Fashion Week website, on Oct. 10 and 11, the newly founded LA Fashion Council had its debut at the Carondelet House in the MacArthur Park section of town and a fashion show at the W Hotel in Westwood, which is part of a new monthly series featuring recurring LA fashion talent.

The list of participating labels included: GAIN, Korovilas, ISM Mode, White Sycamore, Shallow Fashion, Kittinhawk, Bijou Van Ness, Pop Molly, the Bohemian Society and Jen Awad.

LA Fashion Week also featured the introduction of Africa Fashion Week and the turn of Elite Curves Haute Curves at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

On Oct. 11, Project Ethos combined efforts with the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk for the first time.  The event was open to the public and included 9:30 and 10:30pm runway shows.  These featured emerging designers such as Jose Galeana (Galeana Designs) and Lawren Michele Cappelletti (Lawren Michele).

Style Fashion Week LA returned to the Vibiana in downtown LA on Oct. 15-19, stated the LA Fashion Week website. 

One of the biggest highlights of the week was a runway show and fundraiser on Oct. 16.  The event, which was organized by Fashion Business Inc. and hosted by Melissa Rivers and comedian Brett Walkow, took place at Union Station in downtown.

According to an article on latimes.com, the event “All Aboard … L.A.’s Fashion Platform” was a “nod to 1930s films and the lore of locomotive.”  They showcased 11 California-based brands including Unspoken Lingerie, Johnny Was, Living Doll Los Angeles, San & Lavi, XCVI Continuous Line, Liberty Sage, Gelareh Designs among others.

LAFW will conclude this coming weekend with LA Fashion Weekend on Oct. 19- 21 at Sunset Gower Studios.  According to latimes.com, the designer lineup still has yet to be announced; organizers expect to present at least three multi-brand runway shows, one dedicated to swimwear labels.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on all things fashion, but I absolutely love it and try to do my best to be educated. So I was somewhat shocked that I wasn’t familiar with hardly any of the designers that showed their collections this week but I am so glad that I’ve had this opportunity to write about it and to put the names of these designers out there. 

They may not be as well-known as Rebecca Minkoff, Marc Jacobs or Michael Kors yet, but they have proven their talent on a local level.

 

 

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