L.A. runways: growing pains
MERCEDES-BENZ Fashion Week ended here Sunday with another thud. Louis Verdad, one of the city’s most promising talents, whose theatrical, 1940s-inspired suits have been worn by Madonna, Cate Blanchett and Britney Spears, attracted Vogue’s Anna Wintour to her second L.A. show. And for the second time, the production and the clothes didn’t measure up.
Verdad is a great tailor, and with the focus on suits this season, the time has never been better for his designs. Unfortunately, we’ve seen most of what he did on Sunday before; he’s been showing it for two years. Verdad did soften things up a bit, with some unremarkable jersey baby-doll tops, and offered a few new jacket shapes -- a fine houndstooth bolero and a bomber in a pretty shade of rose. But any differences in his pinstriped creations could only be seen in the smallest details: gentle fan pleating on the sides of an hourglass-shaped jacket in chocolate and pink pinstripes, and stair step-like pockets on long shorts that buttoned in front like sailor pants.
Eveningwear was awkward and overdone: A red satin gown had a black illusion bodice with ruffles around the arm holes and buttoned pockets over the breasts, and the beaded shoulder appliques on a chocolate silk charmeuse creation brought to mind a bad mother-of-the-bride dress.
Frida Kahlo hairdos, a funereal-looking pot of lilies and a fake parrot on the runway couldn’t hide the production issues. (Wintour’s first outing on Friday to Carlos Rosario’s show was also met with a lack of seasoned production values.)
Verdad had too many looks and the models walked excruciatingly slowly, leading one editor to quip that Verdad and other L.A. designers might want to watch videotapes of New York shows to learn about the importance of pace. (Though it should be noted that it’s sometimes an issue of money; L.A. designers don’t have much, so they can only afford to hire a few models, who have to walk slowly to give the others time to change clothes.)
Summing up the week of shows at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Saks Fifth Avenue Senior Fashion Director Michael Fink, one of the only store representatives to attend, may have put it best: “I’m not coming out of here with a different message than from New York, Milan and Paris,” he said. What’s really important in terms of L.A. fashion “happens in showrooms and in trend moments,” he added, referring to such celebrity-fueled fads as Ugg boots and hipster jeans. Fink said he probably will not return next season.
Despite the lack of buyers in the audience and the dearth of trends emerging from the runway, the week was still a success, said Fern Mallis, executive director of 7th on Sixth, the New York-based company that is in its fifth season of producing the shows here, and is a division of worldwide event production company IMG.
“Some shows are international platforms and others are national and regional,” she said. “L.A. has its own voice, its own set of editors and tons of TV. And to keep comparing it to New York isn’t fair because it will always feel like it’s not a success.”
The L.A. shows are more about “press value and buzz than buyers sitting in the front row with their pencils writing orders,” she said. “Because, let’s face it, even in New York, most of the buyers have already seen the collections before they are on the runway. That’s kind of the industry’s dirty little secret. But having the shows here provides exposure for L.A. designers and supports the stores’ buys of their collections.”
She cited Jenni Kayne as an L.A. Fashion Week success story, saying rightly that nobody knew her name before she showed here. Petro Zillia’s Nony Tochterman is another designer who has benefited from exposure at the shows, Mallis added.
“The shows here validate what these designers do,” said Davis Factor, who founded the Smashbox photography studio with his brother, Dean, in 1991 and is in partnership with 7th on Sixth to produce L.A. Fashion Week.
While acknowledging the production problems with individual shows, Mallis said, “It has gotten 100% better since we started. There is probably more of a role we can play on a year-round basis to help with the education process, but a lot of it is budgetary.”
Mallis said she has gotten positive feedback from sponsors. And, indeed, Jessica Stark, a representative for Judith Ripka, the jewelry designer in her fourth season of sponsoring the shows here, seemed thrilled. Being a part of the shows has enabled her to network with celebrity stylists and West Coast editors, which has led to editorial placement in such magazines as Hollywood Life, she said.
But, ultimately, L.A. Fashion Week will succeed or fail on the quality of the designs. And over the weekend, there were several collections, including Cesar de la Parra, Naqada, Harveys, Samora and Shay Todd, that were either not runway ready or runway worthy. It seems that L.A. Fashion Week might be better off if it were a couple of days of really top-notch shows.
Among the highlights, Karanina by childhood friends Kara Smith and Nina Firestone was about jersey dresses and Jacquard coats in mosaic prints with a bohemian flair. At Iron, artist Leejay’s paintings were transformed into prints on sexy twist-front jersey dresses.
The Moda group show of emerging Italian designers, sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, was another bright spot, particularly Sonia Speciale’s black cutaway evening coat with multiple organza collars and a military jacket in washed steel wool.
Sheri Bodell is fluent in the leather and fur-trimmed rocker chick look, which she didn’t add much to, except for a dusty rose quilted velvet blazer that tied with ribbons in front like Yves Saint Laurent’s from several seasons ago. Michelle Mason’s best jackets were a chocolate herringbone shrunken Edwardian style and a salt ‘n’ pepper bomber with four patch pockets in front. There was also a sweet wine silk blouse, worn with wide-leg, cropped corduroy pants. But as a whole, the collection was too familiar. It would be nice to see Mason return to showing exquisite gowns.
It should be mentioned that fashion snobs be damned, the guests -- and eventual consumers -- had a hootin’ and hollering good time at all the shows. It seems there’s no place like L.A. for spontaneous applause and designer appreciation.
But despite Mallis’ insistence that L.A. Fashion Week is not a training ground for the big leagues in New York, most designers here who have any success will eventually face a choice. It’s a choice that comes up often between L.A. and New York, the West Coast and the East. How much is enough? Is having a $1-million business in sunny Southern California enough, or is the chance at a $5-million business and international press exposure worth braving the rat race and the runways of New York?
