Designed for Flair--but Only If You Dare

L.A.’s up-and-coming fashion designers took center stage at the second annual “GenArt Fresh Faces in Fashion” event Monday. GenArt, a New York-based nonprofit, is dedicated to showcasing young talent in fashion, film and visual arts. More than 200 fashionistas crowded into the ballroom at Park Plaza Hotel for a runway show hosted by Downtown Julie Brown, featuring the work of 12 emerging L.A. designers as selected by a panel of local stylists, retailers and editors.

Kelly Delkeskamp and John Cherpas for Josephine Loka started the show on a high note with crowd-pleasing glam rock separates including candy-colored faux snakeskin pants. Alla Berman for Single showed pants and scarf skirts in Pucci-esque prints, while Alan Del Rosario’s evening wear took cues from India. The L.A. designer paired cropped tops with full, midriff-baring skirts in powder puff-colored fabrics that shimmered with tiny mirrors. The highlight of the show was the work of Alicia Lawhon, who has come into her own as a designer. Her models wore relaxed, ethnic-inspired skirts in jewel tones, roses balanced atop their heads. (And we loved their pink fake fur thong sandals.)

We caught up with Tracey Ullman, who told us she is taking a break from acting and writing to start her own Internet retail fashion site, Purple-Skirt.com (https://www.purpleskirt.com).

“I’ve gotten really into shopping on the Web,” said the British clotheshorse, who wore a ruby-red pony-skin Prada coat. “But lots of the sites are too busy. Mine will be easy to use. No whistles or bells, just good clothes.”

Her partners in the venture are Janeen Bragan, a buyer for Fred Segal Flair, and costume designer Shay Cunliffe (“City of Angels,” “Civil Action”). The site should be up in three weeks, she said.

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For a number of reasons, nausea set in as we listened to Donald Trump campaigning from his bedroom on Howard Stern’s nationally syndicated radio show Tuesday morning. The two hotheads chatted about The Donald’s not-yet-official run for president and, more important, about his current first lady . . . Slovenian-born fashion model Melania Knauss.

Knauss, 26, apparently listened dutifully as the two men discussed her attributes: “She doesn’t even know what the word cellulite means,” Trump said gleefully, potentially alienating every soccer mom in America.

At the end of the interview, Trump offered to take Stern out for a night on the town: “You will see things you have never seen before,” he promised.

Stern interjected, “I’ll bring the Viagra!”

“With the right woman, you won’t need Viagra,” Trump trumped. Well, there goes the Viagra-voting bloc.

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Victoria’s big secret? Women’s Wear Daily reported the lingerie company’s second live Web cast will be broadcast from the Cannes Film Festival in May. We can only hope the Cannes cyber peep show is as popular as the first Web cast was. That one took place in New York last February. Close to 1.5 million people jammed the Web site’s server trying to get a glimpse of supermodels Tyra Banks and Stephanie Seymour strutting their stuff. The event is still in the planning stage, said a Victoria’s Secret rep, so no comment.

Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.