This Way, L.A.
Forget the fashion tents in New York’s Bryant Park.
Come with us to Soho Nightclub in downtown Los Angeles, where 10 local designers are about to send out some wickedly cool and free-spirited fashion ideas--a slice of L.A. style that the rest of the world lately seems to want.
Witness the 1,300 people crowded inside this dance club--sipping dirty martinis at the bar, huddled in cliques on the packed balcony and mingling deep behind seated guests and fashion photographers parked at the end of a runway with a disco ball above it.
The show--one of several staged by L.A. designers during California Mart’s Fashion Week (which concluded Tuesday)--is an hour late. And the crowd, from a guy dressed in a muscle shirt and an ankle-length tube skirt to a woman covered up in a maxi-length “Superfly” coat, are clapping loudly, stomping even, for their fashion fix.
They’re seriously curious about the fall 2000 collections from local designing men and women who belong to the relatively new fashion machine known as CLAD, or Coalition of Los Angeles Designers--a diverse group of Latino, Asian American, African American and white designers.
The nonprofit group, founded less than two years ago by designers Monah Li and Alicia Lawhon to create awareness of local designers, organized the $10,000 production. The Monday event, free to the public, attracted a crowd of guests, in a line that snaked around the nightclub and into a nearby parking lot.
But the wait, outside and inside the club, appeared to have been worth it. Applause, whistles and shouts of approval hailed the collections, which showcased styles ranging from tight leather trousers to dangerously low-cut glamour gowns to sweatpants with pockets trimmed in rabbit fur.
CLAD’s mission was to show that L.A. fashion “isn’t just about junior sportswear” or surfer looks, said Li, referring to the city’s vast junior and contemporary markets, the largest in the country.
“L.A. is about real design, real talent and real fashion,” added Li, CLAD’s president, backstage after the show. “L.A. looks aren’t only about wearing bikinis, T-shirts and shorts.”
An Aesthetic Drawn From Celebrity Culture
Still, L.A. remains known mostly as an apparel manufacturing center, employing more garment workers than New York, the traditional base for America’s top designers. Junior and contemporary clothes account for 60% of Los Angeles County’s $11.9-billion wholesale clothing market, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
CLAD, according to its founders, was created to spotlight designers here. Their timing couldn’t be better now that celebrity culture--Hollywood and rock ‘n roll--is influencing style on and off runways and in fashion magazines. They want people to know that New York City is not the only fashion epicenter.
The group certainly shook things up. Designers Li, Lawhon, Anna Huling, Freddie Rojas for Rojas; Cynthia Vincent for St. Vincent; Christopher Enuke for Oliver Twist; Chuck Layne for Bessie Guthrie; Anita Arze for Talking to Angels; and John Cherpas with Kellie Delkeskamp for Josephine Loka rocked at the slick CLAD presentation produced by Magda Berliner and Persephanie Angco.
The ambience was decidedly different than that of other international runway shows. Here people were nice and not caught up in the snobbishness and self-importance of traditional fashion. The mood was celebratory.
The show kicked off with the Josephine Loka collection by Cherpas and Delkeskamp. Cherpas described their line as “Excalibur meets punk rock.”
In-Your-Face Signature Style
Friends for 16 years and a designing duo for two, they drew inspiration from the knights of the round table--L.A.-style, natch--showing sexy ladies-in-waiting and their hunky men in shining armor.
Models paraded in fur-lined burgundy silk velvet capes and black leather pants and leather breastplates accented with human hair on the shoulders and on the backsides of trousers.
Their sexy silver garments were crowd-pleasers. For women, a sequined silver lace miniskirt teamed with a ruffled silver lace blouse; for guys, silver leather trousers with a silver hooded shirt. Rich crushed velvets, silk chiffons, soft suedes and sequin detailing were hallmarks of their work.
“We dress a lot of rock stars and celebrities, which is what L.A. style is about,” Cherpas said backstage as he and Delkeskamp accepted congratulations from fans. “New York is about fashion models and that look. L.A. is about the celebrity look, which is way more expressive than New York. And as designers, we like pushing the L.A. envelope.”
So did others:
* Li showed a sexy fuchsia flapper dress with appliqued netting, and a wool and satin corset dress in olive topped with a distressed cardigan modeled by actress Jennifer Tilly.
* Huling, a California Mart Rising Star recipient in 1996, showed her funky flair for pinstripes with a fitted jacket paired with low-slung, side-vented hipster pants and a fuchsia stretch silk camisole trimmed in lace. Her copper metal low-riding pants and halter tops were extraordinary, as was her fuchsia mohair double-breasted jacket trimmed with brown rabbit fur.
* Rojas, a designer for more than a decade, presented a cool collection he called the “hooker sport” look--a line of tops, halters, jackets, sweatpants and skirts made of shiny leather, punched vinyl, rabbit fur and flannel. The color purple ruled in a leather tube top and a vinyl cropped jacket. A red rabbit-fur cropped jacket, teamed with very low-riding and revealing red nylon jeans, was a crowd favorite.
* Layne, who grew up on his grandparents’ tobacco farm in Virginia and named his label after his grandma, Bessie Guthrie, presented a beautiful hand-crocheted collection of boucle tube dresses and maxi-coats, floor-length halter dresses and hot pants in white faux angora, and others in faux fur.
* Arze, who studied art and fashion design at New York’s Parsons School of Design, showed a colorful collection (fuchsia, orange, red, turquoise and purple) of psychedelic and tie-dyed turtlenecks and tops, jeans, hot pants and skirts--clothes she loved wearing while a student at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz. Her partner, David Miller, also helped create star-printed long-sleeved shirts and pants with dyed spirals on the sides that were standouts.
* Nigerian-born Enuke, who has lived in L.A. for 14 years and is a graduate of the Otis Art Institute, presented a lovely and colorful collection of hand-knitted cardigans and coats, knit dresses and skirts inspired by the garments of Tibetan nomads, “something I read about and connected with,” he said. The crowd connected as well, especially with his showpiece, a billowing, long red coat teamed with a pink and gold, knee-length dress.
* Vincent, another Otis graduate and Rising Star winner in 1998, showed an exquisitely fitted leather collection in brown, black, olive green and red. “I did a lot of leather because it felt really right and current,” Vincent said. “And it was something that I wanted to explore and find new ways to work with.” She had a petticoated red leather circle skirt worn with a plunging black leather shirt. A red leather, knee-length wrap dress and an olive green leather pantsuit with floral embroidery drew kudos from the crowd.
* Lawhon, who was born in Nayarit, Mexico, and worked as a buyer at Fred Segal on Melrose until she became a full-time designer in 1996, presented a line influenced by punk rock. Plaid pants and skirts, ski caps, hand-knit belted cardigans, wool sweaters, thermal tops with hand-crocheted details and bleached denim skirts, a la the 1980s, rounded out her collection. Standouts included a floor-length black wool Gothic coat and a black hand-crocheted wool dress with draping leather wings at the hip.
“L.A. and people from other parts of the world are very hungry for this,” said Lawhon, surrounded by well-wishers after the show. She recalled CLAD’s first meeting in late 1998. “We talked about which direction we should go and the one thing we agreed on was that we wanted to do shows and help each other.” So far, the group has organized workshops on garment-industry issues from health care to insurance. CLAD has also raised more than $80,000 for Divine Design, which raises money for Project Angel Food.
Vincent, who was the group’s founding president, said, “People in the arts, in graphics, in architecture and other creative disciplines are always surprised to hear that there is a thriving fashion industry here.”
Backstage after the show, the CLAD designers gathered for group photos and congratulated each other. And they marveled at the turnout.
“We received about 2,000 calls for the show on the RSVP phone line,” Li said, adding that as many as 300 people who showed up didn’t get in because of fire safety precautions.
“It didn’t make me feel good for the people waiting who didn’t get in. But I was so happy that we put this event together,” she said. “In a big way, we put a real face on L.A. design.”
Michael Quintanilla can be reached at michael.quintanilla@latimes.com.
