Fashion Diary: L.A. wins at the CFDA

Gossip, first impressions, trends in the making, celebrities and style setters. A regular feature by fashion critic Booth Moore.

 

NEW YORK -- It was a big night for Los Angeles at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards, the apparel industry equivalent to the Oscars held at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on Monday. Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, who started making dresses in their parents' guest house in Pasadena just four years ago, took the womenswear designer of the year award.

 

Not since James Galanos won the lifetime achievement award in 1984 has a Left Coast label made such an impact on the Seventh Avenue-centric CFDA, a non-profit trade organization that supports American designers. Unlike Galanos, whose beaded confections were all Nancy Reagan perfection, the Mulleavys' horror-film-meets-haute-couture aesthetic reflects the dichotomy of the California dream with blood red-streaked and graffitied chiffon gowns, shredded leather leggings and bike jackets and spike-covered stilettos.

 

The self-taught sisters have earned a loyal following in Hollywood with celebs such as Kirsten Dunst, who led the designers' cheering section Monday night. Also in the visiting-from-California contingent: Decades' Cameron Silver, Toms Shoes' Blake Mycoskie and Trovata's John Whitledge.

 

L.A. designers among fashion award nominees

L.A.’s own Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte have been nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America Women's Wear Designer of the Year Award. The Pasadena sisters, whose collage dresses were a highlight of New York Fashion Week last month, are up against Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez. Another local designer, Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders, was nominated for the Best Men's Wear Designer of the Year Award alongside Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein and Michael Bastian. Thakoon Panichgul, Jason Wu and Alexander Wang are contenders for the Swarovski Award for up-and-coming women's wear designers. The board of directors Special Tribute Award will be given to First Lady Michelle Obama, who has boosted the American fashion industry by choosing clothes by emerging designers, including Rodriguez, Panichgul and Wu.

The awards, which are the fashion industry's Oscars, are scheduled for June 15 at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York.

--Booth Moore

RELATED:

New York Fashion Week review: Rodarte fall 2009 collection | Photos

New York Fashion Week: Band of Outsiders collection puts the best feet forward

All the Rage's New York Fashion Week coverage

Photo: Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.

NYFW: Alexander Wang review

NEW YORK -- Alexander Wang is ready to go from beer-stained honky-tonk to professional concert arena thanks to a rumored influx of cash for his label, and a Council of Fashion Designers of America award.

For fall, his rocker chick is all grown up (and you can bet Wang's prices will go up too). Instead of ripped fishnets and rolled-up jean shorts, she's wearing oversized leather bomber jackets swinging fox tails, stovepipe pants with stud detailing down the sides, and leather jumpsuits -- all black of course. Calling all pop divas.

But Wang also makes beautifully cut blazers, which were elevated to a new, more sophisticated level this season. The best in show was a black off-the-shoulder style with lacing across the bare shoulders.

Satine strides into '09

Despite so many L.A. boutiques shutting their doors these days, West 3rd Street shop Satine seems to be doing pretty well.  Owners Jeannie Lee and Virginia Pereira have hosted some of the year’s hottest designer soirees including Jason Wu and Alexander Wang in the store, and they’ve also got their own design projects.

They’re designing the new uniforms for the Palihouse locations in West Hollywood and Hollywood. The uniforms, which Pereira describes as “prep school punk” will hit the hotel staff in April.

Lee and Pereira also have a new intimates line called Bacini (Italian for “little kisses”), which will be in their own store and Anthropologie in a few days. The collection of bralettes, panties and knickers are what Pereira describes as “sexy, but not provocative. It’s not for a girl who wears it to get a man to pay her rent. It’s for a girl who pays her own rent.”

-- Melissa Magsaysay

NY Fashion Week: Skin is in

Hurricane Hanna hit New York on Saturday, the rain came in sheets, and still the glossy editors wore their stiletto sandals and booties, God bless 'em. Me, I wore my Havaiana flip-flops and almost lost one when I stepped into a puddle up to my ankles trying to steal a cab ahead of the teetering flock on the corner of 21st and 10th Avenue.

Luckily, trucking around in the soggy weather was worth it. The shows have been good, and from the handful I have seen, it seems to be all about the body for spring. Maybe it’s the Olympics, or fashion's
never-ending love affair with the 1980s, but skin is in; skirts are short and tight.

Up-and-comer Alexander Wang has got the look down like nobody else. His show was in a garage-like space with concrete floors that his helpers sprinkled with water to create that hot and sweaty after-a-night-of-partying vibe. They needn’t have bothered. We could have all just shaken out our umbrellas.

Wang's collection was raunchy and fun -- an awesome mishmash of sportswear and the street, with a touch of "Miami Vice" in the form of neon pinks and aqua blues. Crockett and Tubbs ARE due for a fashion comeback. And I loved the quote he put in his show notes: “Anyone can get all dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress for their off days that is the most intriguing.”