Runway show as exhibit

Is “Hubby Part IV: Portrait of a Community” a scrapbook of the Chinatown art scene -- or a fashion show? Given that Bettina Hubby is an artist and a designer whose work is about abandoning convention, it makes sense that it’s actually both. Her L.A. Fashion Week debut tonight will be less runway show than collaborative exhibition of about 30 portraits in the Mountain Bar’s upstairs gallery space.

To create her clothing, Hubby works by transforming what might be considered out of fashion into the “in” by adding a patchwork, homegrown touch. To show it off, she culled her models from the Chinatown art scene: curators, painters, publishers and collectors. Participants include L.A. artists Skip Arnold and Francis Stark, and art publisher Joel Mesler, founder of Pruess Press. In one shot, collector Seth Geller wears a vintage Perry Ellis shirt, its backside adorned by Hubby with an edgy weave effect.

They all posed for photographer Joshua White amid a set by gallerist Daniel Hug. “I asked friends to give me a garment of their choosing to reinvent,” Hubby says, “and from there it became a homage to a group of people who I think are worthy of attention.”

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“A Portrait of a Community,” Mountain Bar, 473 Gin Ling Way, Chinatown, L.A., 8 p.m. today. (213) 625-7500