Fashion Notes

Now that L.A. fashion is attracting greater national and international interest, several local industry promoters are working to organize a Los Angeles Fashion Week that will lure editors and buyers from around the world. Now, fashion week is a fragmented series of shows and parties held twice a year, mostly for local press and buyers. The shows are a blip compared with the superpowers in New York and Europe.

SPR partners Sara Stein and Margaret Schell signed an agreement in late March with fashion show producers Shannon Davidson and Megan Griffith to create a day of fashion events that also would feature related arts such as photography and jewelry design. Separately, Lynne Franks, owner of public relations firm Globalfusion, met at about the same time with other fashion professionals to propose a weeklong men’s and women’s fashion exhibition, under the working name of L.A. Fashion Fusion. It could also include student workshops or even a mini music and art festival centered around theaters in downtown L.A. Franks, who helped organize London’s fashion week, plans to meet with more L.A. fashion representatives and trade groups.

Meanwhile, Kelly Cutrone, owner of public relations firm People’s Revolution, has talked informally with producers of the New York fashion shows. Finally, so that L.A. fashion week doesn’t begin nearly two months after New York’s, Barbara Kramer and Ed Mandelbaum, producers of the Designers & Agents New Mart trade show, are campaigning to move L.A.’s shows one or two weeks earlier to attract more buyers.