Local designers play David to N.Y.’s Goliath

Every six months, L.A. fashion week rolls around and so do the questions. Why don’t New York’s top magazine editors march their Manolos out here to see the latest designer offerings? Why won’t Gisele grace our runways with her signature Clydesdale clip-clop? (She does live here.) And why, oh why, can’t we have a catty front row?

But maybe the better question is, why would L.A. want to compete with Seventh Avenue and the capitals of Europe?

“Anyone who thinks we are trying to go up against Goliath New York is kidding themselves,” said Rose Apodaca-Jones, West Coast bureau chief of apparel trade bible Women’s Wear Daily. “I see L.A. becoming more of a secondary market like London. Just as editors, stylists and buyers turn to London for edgy talent, they’ve already started turning to L.A.”

The runway shows here draw interest not because they feature designers who are known but because they feature designers who are largely unknown, which anyone involved in fashion will tell you is the lifeblood of the business. “It’s an opportunity for designers who may be established names among Fred Segal-goers but that buyers nationally don’t know,” said Karen Mamont, executive director of marketing for the former California Mart, now called California Market Center, which houses many of L.A.’s apparel showrooms.

Just as London’s fashion week has done over the years, L.A.’s fashion week -- a twice-annual showcase for new designers in venues across the city -- can function as a kind of laboratory of funky street fashion and youthful trends.

“The purpose is to give young designers a place to show their work importantly ... in a safe zone without the pressure of New York,” said Lisa Love, West Coast editor of Vogue.

Today through Tuesday, at such venues as a Frank Lloyd Wright house and a Hollywood rooftop parking lot, more than 60 local designers are scheduled to show spring collections. You’ve never heard of most of them.

Seven designers from CLAD, (the Coalition of L.A. Designers), a kind of nonprofit support group for up-and-comers, will take over the Farmers and Merchant Bank Building in downtown L.A., and Jennifer Nicholson (Jack’s daughter) will present her collection at a Venice art studio. Gen-Art, a New York nonprofit that has hosted shows here since 1998, has nabbed the Mayan Theatre for its “Fresh Faces” group show, including the runway debut of Kate O’Connor, whose painterly knit ponchos have been a hit among the Fred Segal set since last year. And David Cardona, Jared Gold, Petro Zillia, Eduardo Lucero, Alicia Lawhon and Freddie Rojas, all L.A. fashion week vets familiar to the cognoscenti, are showing at different venues around the city. (See www.fashionweekla.com for a complete list.)

Vogue’s high priestess Anna Wintour and Allure’s Linda Wells won’t be in town, but there will be local editors and writers from those magazines as well as Glamour, In Style, W and Vanity Fair. And, although the fashion directors of department stores don’t make the trek to L.A., they do send minions to scour the showrooms of the former California Mart and to attend some runway shows. Expected are buyers from Barneys New York, Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York; Harvey Nichols and Selfridges & Co. in London; Le Bon Marche in Paris. L.A. stores Fred Segal, Beige, Blonde, Curve and Diavolina will also be represented.

“We look to L.A. for something new and different,” said Saks market director Colleen Sherin. “It’s the West Coast laboratory for American designers.”

But one of the most hotly anticipated events isn’t even a fashion show. After several seasons as an unstructured, loosely coordinated event, L.A. fashion week may soon have an umbrella organizer. Tonight, fashion event production company 7th on Sixth, which produces New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, is hosting a party to announce its intent to organize next season’s fashion week here. They plan to hold it under a tent in the parking lot of downtown L.A.’s Standard hotel.

“Part of the reason we are coming is to give a little sense of order,” said Fern Mallis, director of 7th on Sixth, which has had its fair share of criticism for its management of New York fashion week there. Although 7th on Sixth has been down this road before, promising to produce shows this season only to pull out, the fashion community seems receptive to the latest plans.

“This is an opportunity for 7th on Sixth to grow,” said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Assn., an L.A.-based group that serves as an industry voice. “We are hopping. Things are going on here and our new designers are in vogue. The designers in New York are same old same old.”

Darren Gold, president of CLAD and co-designer of Mhope, agrees. “It’s positive that we are hitting the radar and that maybe we are going to step up and take our place in world fashion.”

The corporate sponsorship money 7th on Sixth could bring would increase the production value of L.A.’s amateurish shows and give them a central location. And even a little press here is more than most designers would get during New York fashion week, with its overcrowded schedule and mega-names.

The L.A. market will always be known for moderately priced, trend-driven clothing -- track suits from Juicy Couture, low-slung jeans from Seven, board shorts from Quiksilver -- which doesn’t particularly lend itself to slick, high-priced fashion shows. But in a town that is the birthplace of so many lifestyle trends, there is also a place for designer runways. “A fashion week is needed here to complete the cultural cycle,” said Vogue’s Love, adding, “Why not have an industry that’s more than just jeans and T-shirts?”

The fashion world is seeking new talent, especially now that the economy has put a damper on retail sales. “It’s a time that new ideas are needed,” said Sharon Ryan, who heads the career development center at L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. “People are looking for something to spur business and get consumers excited.”

Saks Fifth Avenue has joined Henri Bendel in hosting “open see” auditions for undiscovered designers twice a year here and in New York. L.A. fashion week is a similar opportunity. Even if the runway shows here don’t lead to immediate store orders, they can be a springboard, as London’s are, to New York, Milan and the real fashion Goliath, Paris.

“It’s important to go out and support these people, to give them your feedback,” said Shauna Stein, co-owner of the local boutique On Beverly Boulevard. “Some of the L.A. designers need to broaden their strokes a little bit. But if no one is giving them feedback, how do you expect them to develop?”