L.A.’s Smaller, Gentler Fashion Week

Fashion Week is held five times a year at the California Mart for wholesalers and other players in the fashion industry interested in upcoming collections. The event pales in comparison to New York’s Fashion Week, which is held twice a year. The Big Apple attracts international designers and stages more than 100 runway shows and an equal number of displays in showrooms, generating millions of dollars of revenue for the city. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani even hosted a fashion show in Times Square in the fall.

The calendar for the latest Fashion Week here listed only five scheduled fashion shows. The Mart organized only one--its own, which was held last Friday to show the fall 2000 collections of 30 designers, several of them local and, for the most part, well-established, according to Karie Reynolds, the Mart’s spokeswoman. But showrooms at the Mart informally presented their lines.

“We have buyers come in from around the world to buy from our showrooms,” said Reynolds, adding that the California Mart supports other groups throughout the city “who piggyback on our official Fashion Week,” which, she added, is trademarked.

Besides the Coalition of Los Angeles Designers show, designers Estevan Ramos, Michelle Mason and Grant Krajecki for Grey Ant each held individual shows throughout Los Angeles during the same five-day period.

Likewise the New Mart, another downtown L.A. showroom, offered its second annual Designers & Agents four-day trade show for buyers during the same time span.