We kicked off planning season for Fashion Week with a party on the rooftop of the Hotel Erwin in Venice beach. THE CALL TO ACTION WAS THIS: if you are a fashion designer, start thinking NOW about how you will present your collection during LA Fashion Week this October. If you're a retailer, stylist or journalist, start making some room in your schedule to see some new talent.
Why now? Why at all?
Because fashion journalists and retail store buyers are trying to make LA travel plans! Just last week Vogue Australia said they wanted to send a crew but needed to know what's going on. We are seeing that the departure of IMG and Smashbox from the LA Fashion Week schedule has not necessarily diminished interest in LA fashion designers or events. Rather than see a handful of LA fashion designers in Paris, or a smattering of LA brands at NY Fashion Week, there is an interest to see it HERE. In L.A. In its native element. It's likely the recent CFDA wins by Rodarte and Band of Outsiders have piqued curiosity about the depth and breadth of talent here.
Will LA's fashion houses come through?
We will do our bit to help. FashionWeekLA.com will continue to support all valid fashion presentations for Spring 2010 collections with FREE calendar listings at any venue across Los Angeles. Whether you choose a collective show hub organized by an exceptional producer or go off site to an architectural home in Hollywood Hills (or a subway station along the Red Line, or an abandoned lot next to a freeway overpass) we'll list it. Your presentation doesn't have to be HUGE. It just has to GOOD. This independent spirit reminds us of those creative days a decade ago, when we got to see LA talents like Michelle Mason, Eduardo Lucero and Cynthia Vincent in the most interesting of spaces. We'd love to see that again.
At FashionWeekLA.com we feel so strongly about the vision and talent of LA's fashion community that we are planning to relaunch the site in July with new search and sort calendar features and event listing details that include maps, print and rsvp contacts. And we'll limit access to that contact information to press & industry.
The first event we'll list is the LA Fashion Awards, slated to return as a VIP reception on Thursday, October 15, 2009. Save the date.
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