Flash Forward : Fashion: L.A. preview show of spring looks expands its vision beyond the clothing industry for a peek at some related fields.
Lookwest ’91 began as a plan to augment the well-established, annual presentation of Los Angeles fashion designers’ spring collections. But, typical of this city’s erratic fashion industry, it became the only preview of the season.
This is something like replacing a week’s episode of “The Cosby Show” with 10 minutes of home videos about the TV series’ producers. It’s not the same as seeing a “Cosby.’ But judged on its own merit it might turn out to be quite impressive--as Lookwest did.
Sponsored by Los Angeles members of Fashion Group International--a business network for women in the industry--Monday night’s event went well beyond the typical fashion show to explore photography, food, fine and graphic art, architecture, advertising, beauty and the entertainment industry, as well as clothing design. It was an effort to explore how these worlds relate and how Southern California is the raw material that inspires them all.
The fashion segments included as few as one, and seldom more than six outfits by any one designer, and did not supply anything close to full coverage of the local fashion market. But the show did capture the eclectic assortment of youthful, playful, and often costume-like clothes the world looks to this city to supply. And the range of designers--from the very well-established Bob Mackie, Nolan Miller, Georges Marciano for Guess and Robin Piccone for Body Glove, to newcomers Eddie Lowrie, Arrastia and Ofelia--offered the most comprehensive capsule view yet of what Los Angeles fashion is all about.
The complex presentation cut from videotaped street scenes of ethnic neighborhoods to live fashion showings to taped interviews with leaders in the designated fields.
The fashion segments featured about 100 designers, whose spring ’91 styles worked into certain categories chosen to reflect aspects of Los Angeles: “Wheel City,” “Cross Culture,” “Hollywood” and so on. In a more democratic show, this would never do, since no designer’s complete idea about fashion’s next direction was fully represented. But the Fashion Group never pretended this was an objective or encompassing show, and that was their prerogative.
Maggy Barry and Stephen Walker for Van Buren were among the best represented designers, with a number of ‘60s-inspired slip dresses and body-gripping unitards appliqued with leather and sequined peace symbols and flowers, as well as an assortment of leather jackets and pants covered with stars and stripes, during the “Wheel City” segment of the show.
Kevan Hall’s evening wear was younger spirited than usual. His long dinner jacket mixed natural linen with iridescent silk and topped a brief, chiffon swing skirt. A short, tangerine-colored chiffon dress with illusion sleeves had a kicky, ‘60s tent-dress feel to it, seen in the Hollywood segment.
Christine Albers showed fresh and energetic white bodysuits cropped at mid-thigh and topped by full cut, navy cardigan jackets of the same length during the “Solar Action” segment.
Rosemary Brantley’s crisp silk patio outfits included a glamorous, fuchsia-color bathrobe dress over short shorts, for “L.A. Spectrum,” a segment about the colors of the city. From Michael Hoban of North Beach Leather, bright color bomber jackets were appliqued with traffic signs or “Highway 101” road markers.
The latest from Body Glove beach wear was a silver neoprene fencing jacket covering a black Lycra romper cut to mid-thigh, with a halter top. Brenda Welch’s evening swim wear and after-swim wear included glitter-appliques on the leg of crushed velvet capri pants or the center of a strapless bra top. For Guess, Marciano branched out from a kicky little blue denim skort (a takeoff on a tennis skirt) to what qualifies here, if nowhere else, as evening wear: silver hot pants and a sheer, slate gray man-tailored shirt. Bob Mackie offered several body-paving sequined evening gowns. In the true L.A. spirit, both he and Marciano were part of the Hollywood segment.
Rather than try to articulate what fashion has to do with works by other creative forces, the producers allowed videotapes to do the talking.
With wonderment, restaurateurs Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff, best known as creators of Spago, talked about bok choy, fresh corn and other produce available here year-round. Artist David Hockney described his painterly evolution from isolated cube forms to swirling line compositions as a result of nothing more than a change in home address, from the flats of South Hollywood to the curving landscape of the Hollywood Hills. Choreographer/singer Paula Abdul described her early days as a typically unorthodox Los Angeles entrepreneur, explaining that her mother was her first agent, posing as such when Paramount Studios dug out then Laker Girl Abdul’s home number from the phone book and called inquiring about her day rate as a choreographer.
T-shirt clad, world-traveling fashion photographer Phillip Dixon remarked, “There’s all the sophistication you need (in this city), if you want to go find it.” Jay Chiat of Chiat/Day/Mojo Advertising, known for his sports photography-inspired Nike ads, recalled how athletes dress in such ads and noted, “A lot of fashion is either followed or generated by advertising.” April Greiman described her sophisticated method of making high-tech graphics and said, “When I came to Los Angeles I was a little shocked by the lack of culture. The lack of tradition. But the greatest weakness is the greatest strength.”
And architect Jon A. Jerde, who designed the new Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising where a pre-show cocktail party was held, concluded: “There is no L.A. It’s a great eclectic collision.”
The evening generated proceeds enough to finance fellowships in six categories: Advertising (John Butler and Mike Shine), architecture (Julian Reid), fashion photography (Christopher Reisig), fine art (Ian Falconer), graphic art (Lise Mardon) and restaurants (Mike Payne, Anne and David Gingrass). An additional $48,000 went to the Fashion Group’s Rudi Gernreich Memorial Scholarship fund.
Patricia Fox and Paddy Calistro co-chaired the event, and James Watterson produced the fashion show.
Pioneering spirit and overall success aside, the evening did have its problems, from the most practical to the more earthmoving. Some 150 members of the press attended the show, and many complained that they could not tell which designer created which outfit, since the usual list in order of appearance, the “run of show,” was not supplied.
An ill-conceived segment on hairstyles and makeup would have worked better as a video segment. Top stylists included Cristophe, Laurent Dufourg of the Jose Eber salon, Lemaire, Aniko of Elle, and Mitsu and Mario of Joseph Martin. The leading look was the short feather cut with high crown of the early ‘60s.
More disconcerting is the fate of the fall press week, which the California Mart, a building in downtown L.A. where fashion designers lease show room space, has traditionally sponsored. Several months ago, Mart official David Morse announced there would be no press week this fall, suggesting first that it might be incorporated into other Mart activities later, then canceling the idea.
Among other repercussions, there will be no Designer of the Year, no Rising Star, no Photographer of the Year awarded this season, which has helped generate national business in the past. And designers will not get the national press coverage they usually receive.
Whatever the future holds it will have to include a rethinking of how Los Angeles collections are presented for review by retailers and the press.
