On Thursday night, as the fashion faithful were tucked away under the tents in Culver City watching the last of the "official" Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week events unspool at Smashbox Studios, Christian Audigier staged his spring-summer 2006 Ed Hardy runway show for several thousand fans at the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district.
"It's Fashion Week and we're not just showing the line to fashion editors and the fashion industry," said Fred Levine (pictured below, watching the show), an owner of the M. Fredric retail stores, which sponsored the event. "We're bringing it to you, the people who wear it." The crowd went wild as two Asian-style dancing dragons bounded off the stage and down the red carpet, followed in short order by nine gyrating dancers in fishnets and torn Ed Hardy T-shirts and then -- in ones and twos -- men, women and children of every stripe sporting the signature tattoo-inspired graphics.
The most impressive part of the event was the crowd, which packed the entire space between the central "dancing fountain" and the statue near Barnes & Noble, save for a sliver of red carpet. Although it seemed less than the 10,000 people cited by the Grove's VP of marketing, Jenny Gordon (we'd say half that number at best), the turnout still dwarfed that of any single fashion show at any venue over the previous eight days. That is perhaps an unfair comparison because the other fashion events weren't open to the public, but Audigier definitely seems to have tapped into the street.
At the end of a long week, this plank in the runway was too tired to ask about the "surprise celebrity guests" in the show. But I did spot oil heir Jason Davis rockin' some Ed Hardy on the catwalk in perhaps the most animated half-jig of his life, and the tween girls beside me had made the trek from Mexico to proclaim their love for someone named "Boo-Boo."
The evening ended with the comical image of Audigier bounding enthusiastically down the stairs, missing a step and accidentally turning part of the front row into an unwitting mosh pit as the Crenshaw High School band played it to a close by marching down the red carpet.
And with that, another L.A. Fashion Week drew to a close, so we're rolling up the runway and handing the keys back to Booth.
-- Adam Tschorn
(Photo Credit: Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times)
Hair, there, everywhere
On my way to Smashbox to see Jeremy Scott's raucous runway show last night, I swung by DJ Steve Aoki's party celebrating the release of his signature line of headphones (you heard right) at Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue. "That '70s Show" actor Danny Masterson was on the turntables when I got there -- and my estimation of him rose significantly when someone clued me in on his musical moniker: DJ Mom Jeans. Classic. (See Aoki and Masterson, at top). Swedish sportswear company WeSC sponsored the event, luring a cache of scruffy Nordic dudes to the store's restaurant patio and bar area. But the most eye-catching person there was underground hip-hop artist Murs (just one name, above), who boasted fountain-like sprigs of dreaded hair from various parts of his head. When asked how he achieves the look, Murs demurred. "I don't do anything to it," he said, "it does this on its own." I couldn’t help scanning his head for wires anyway.
--Emili Vesilind
(Photo credit: Emili Vesilind / Los Angeles Times)
Eco-friendly fashion hits Kuala Lumpur
Green is obviously the color of the season. Smashbox Studios shed any un-eco-friendly elements for this L.A Fashion Week, more green designers are showing than previous seasons and the announcement of ecoStyle, an initiative to bring attention to sustainable fashion and lifestyle, was made yesterday at, where else? The green room at Smashbox.
On Nov. 22, ecoStyle will hold a fundraiser in Kuala Lumpur where selected fashion designers will showcase their eco-conscious and sustainable clothing. The event marks the first of its kind for an Asian country and money raised will benefit a Malaysian-focused environmental cause.
But it’s not just all show and no tell. The event will also honor a designer or company in the fashion or design industry that has exemplified eco-friendly business and production practices. This years nominees include Stella McCartney, Terra Plana, Jurlique and Knoll. Honored yesterday with an ecoStyle award of her own for her environmental work through her Collage Foundation was model Angela Lindvall, who was on hand to accept the award. She also spoke about how she was inspired to utilize the fickle nature of the fashion world as leverage in getting a long-lasting environmental message out to the masses. “I happened to use media and fashion as a way to bring up environmental issues. I would see what would happen when a company was pushing something as ‘the hottest handbag’ and people would go crazy for it. I thought if this industry can push a handbag, I can use it to educate people and bring awareness to living a sustainable lifestyle and be more conscious of the environment.” Lindvall was also given an eco diary, a blank book made of all recycled paper (natch) where she will document her day-to-day practices of how she tries to live the green lifestyle.
The environmentally conscious Lauren Bush joined the crowd at the tail end due to some pesky freeway traffic. But she posed for photographers and chatted with Lindvall until getting whisked away again to sit front row at the Gallery fashion show, which featured five eco-friendly designers.
Who said it was easy being green?
-- Melissa Magsaysay
Photo credit: Angela Lindvall and Lauren Bush catch up after the ecoStyle press conference. (Melissa Magsaysay)
Sign of the (Whitley) Kros
The runway show for Whitley Kros (pronounced "cross"), the breezy new line from actress Marissa Ribisi and former Satine co-owner Sophia Banks, brought the Scientology set to the Smashbox tents last night. There was Juliette Lewis -- in her signature sky-high stilettos -- vamping for the cameras and Jason Lee hugging his tow-headed son, Pilot Inspector, to his lap. Giovanni Ribisi (Marissa's twin bro) looked sharp in a skinny-cut black suit -- tie and all -- while Kirstie Alley (left) confabbed with runway coach Jay Alexander (??). Beck, Marissa's husband and baby-daddy, manned the turntables. "I didn't really DJ," explained the lank-haired singer after the show, "but I programmed the music." Post-show, Giovanni hosted the tamest after-party in the history of L.A. Fashion Week -- in the Smashbox lobby, no less. But it was all good. We'd had enough excitement for five nights.
-- Emili Vesilind
(Photo credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
In your Fage
L.A. Fashion Week has its own version of Pinkberry this season, with a kiosk of the popular Greek yogurt Fage (pronounced like "page" with an F) in the front lobby at Smashbox Studios. Until now, the best the lobby had to offer was a Windex-blue cocktail and sushi or two kinds of panini, and that started at 10 am. But now that the event has gone green, it’s also gotten more health conscious and seems to be expanding the food selection in a good way.
The creamy yogurt is doled out in front of a wall of cubbies, all housing individual containers of Fage. It tastes like an even creamier Pinkberry and unlike the trendy treat, has all the nutritional information right on the container. There is plain, and then the kind with a little cup of fruit preserves to stir in. Cherry is too cough syrupy but strawberry has the right amount of sweet-to-dairy ratio. The plain is also good with a little honey stirred in, but you’ll have to bring your own -- the only addition available is fresh strawberries and the packaged preserves.
The yogurt stand has drawn as big a line as the bar and seems to be keeping participants well fed and definitely more sober.
-- Melissa Magsaysay
Photo credit: Melissa Magsaysay
Taking an early pulse of L.A. Fashion Week
This blog space is usually reserved for editor Booth Moore and her jaunts around the globe, but since L.A. Fashion Week is "home turf" for the Image staff, we're going to be joining in for some guest blogging -- from the streets of downtown to the tents of Culver City and beyond. Adam Tschorn kicks it off with a view from the pews (well there used to be pews, anyway) of the former St. Vibiana's cathedral in downtown L.A.
The first installment of BOXeight’s two-day, alterna-Fashion Week felt like a “Zoolander” outtake: Mayor Villaraigosa’s red carpet pop-in, Diane Pernet and her towering beehive of a hairdo, Clint Catalyst decked out in a black velvet top hat so tiny it could have been swiped from an organ grinder’s monkey.
The fashion fever-dream was presided over by founder “Pirate” Pete Gurnz, decked in what looked like untethered overalls and floppy work boots, and his grizzled fireplug of a first mate Brady “Ten Gallon” Westwater, who was pressing the flesh and working the crowd like a candidate.
We couldn’t see the mayor’s location at the Louis Verdad show from where we sat, but we’re told he was seated in the second row, a breach of VIP etiquette remedied by the time the Eduardo Lucero show hit the runway.
Another second-row hostage at the Verdad show was singer and former Whitney Houston spouse Bobby Brown, who had made headlines just the day before for a reported (and later denied) heart attack. Sitting behind us, in a pair of red corduroys, blue-and-white striped shirt and a V-neck sweater, accessorized with a huge diamond in his left ear and a newsboy cap parked jauntily on his head, Brown appeared to be full of vigor.
After a seemingly endless barrage of flashbulbs, we turned and introduced ourselves.
“You’re a pretty popular man,” we said.
“I guess maybe just this week,” he responded with a chuckle.
I thought Stella McCartney might be feeling nostalgic when I opened the invitation to her show, and it had children's alphabet magnets spelling out "Stella" on the front.
Her dad Paul McCartney has been to lots of her shows, sitting front row snapping pics on his camera phone, and tapping his foot to whatever crazy pop/hip-hop music mashup is rocking the runway.
But I have never heard her use a single Beatles song.
So what a surprise it was at the end of Thursday's show when the blare softened into "Blackbird singing in the dead of night/Take these broken wings and learn to fly/We were only waiting for this moment to arrive."
McCartney seemed surprised too. And when his seatmate Twiggy reached over to pat him on the back, well, it was impossible not to get teary eyed...
Hangin' with the countess
It's not every night that you get to sip Champagne and nibble on mille-feuille at the Countess de Castiglione's apartment above the Boucheron store in Place Vendome. But, as the brand ambassador to the jeweler (love that title), vintage guru and Decades owner Cameron Silver took over the place to host a small dinner for a few editors, stylist Cristina Ehrlich and her newest client, actress Jennifer Morrison.
In 1893 Frederic Boucheron was the first jeweler to open on Place Vendome, where he was essentially the neighborhood jeweler for Ritz hotel guests until Bulgari, Cartier and the rest moved in.
The brand is known for nature and Art Nouveau-inspired pieces, which will likely be having a moment again in the wake of Prada's botanical and nymph-print spring collection shown last week in Milan.
And we got to admire some of those ridiculously gorgeous pieces, including a flower-shaped multicolored stone collar, a diamond snake pendant, a canary yellow diamond ring that would have made Victoria Beckham drool, and ruby drop earrings that looked right out of the Raj. (Indeed, Boucheron did make jewelry for the Maharajas.)
When the jeweler moved in, the Countess, an Italian courtesan turned mistress of Napoleon III who was known for her extravagant couture clothes, was living upstairs. Cameron showed us the hidden entrance that she used to come and go under the cloak of darkness after she became so disgusted with her declining beauty that she no longer wanted to be seen. She even had the mirrors in the apartment covered, or so the legend goes.
Eventually, Boucheron took over the whole building and the Countess was forced to move out. But there was much talk about her ghost haunting the place. Since I had an empty seat next to me, I like to think she was my dinner partner.
An Englishman in Paris
Forget actors and socialites, rock stars are the front-row eye candy at the shows this season. First there was Prince at Matthew Williamson in London and now Sting at Christian Dior in Paris.
It must have been 100 degrees inside the tent in the Tuileries Gardens where the show was held, but Sting was ever so cool, even with a knot of microphones and cameras in front of him. And when the song "Englishman in New York" came on, setting the scene for John Galliano's male-female runway collection, even supercool Sting cracked a little smile.
We interrupt this runway show...
When the lights go down and a runway show is about to begin, designers have a captive audience. And this season, they're figuring out a new way to work it. I went to two shows back-to-back this week where TV ads for new fragrances were previewed before the models started coming out.
At Emporio Armani, on a huge screen at the top of the runway, Beyonce channeled her inner Marilyn singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" to hawk the Diamonds fragrance.
At Gucci, screens were suspended on either side of the runway so we could watch the making of a TV spot by David Lynch, followed by the ad itself. A very retro, 1970s take on a fragrance ad, it featured models writhing around uncomfortably to the tune of "Heart of Glass" while trying to appear passionate about the Gucci by Gucci perfume.
By now, everyone knows that runway collections aren't as much about showing clothes to buyers as they are about putting on a show for the press, and creating an image to sell accessories and fragrances, which drive sales.
But screening TV ads marked a new level of Hollywood-style marketing on the runway. The least they could have done was serve popcorn!
On Thursday night, as the fashion faithful were tucked away under the tents in Culver City watching the last of the "official" Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week events unspool at Smashbox Studios, Christian Audigier staged his spring-summer 2006 Ed Hardy runway show for several thousand fans at the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district.
