When event producer 7th on Sixth Inc. began putting together the schedule for Fashion Week in Los Angeles, a team of managers hunkered down in the “war room” at their New York headquarters, moving colored Post-it Notes with designer names around a grid on a large board on the wall.
The grid contained time slots and the Post-its represented the three venues where the shows will take place. Later, as designer slots were confirmed and deposits received, smiley faces were added to note the progress.
Today, as the five-day event kicks off, the organizers admit it’s tough to keep everyone smiling.
“It’s a very personal part of the business,” Executive Director Fern Mallis said of the frantic process in which designers try to line up favored spots. “There are all kinds of people trying to figure out ways to become the favorite.”
L.A.’s Fashion Week, while hardly on par with the much larger gathering in New York last month, continues to gain traction in this most finicky world. Held at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, a total of 38 designers will be showing their wares in 20-minute shows. More than 100 designers had expressed an interest in participating.
“We’re looking for somebody who has a point of view, has some talent, a legitimate collection, is selling, has a showroom, has somebody handling PR and all of those elements to be a business that has merit and has some legs,” said Mallis. “This is a business, it’s not just entertainment and it’s not just for fun. We see a lot of portfolios and books and go, ‘This isn’t for real,’ and they go to the back burner.”
Mixing it up
What will be mainly on display are variations on the California look what’s become a catchall term to describe a casual yet trendy approach to clothes that might pair fashionable tops with jeans and flip-flops. Buyers from around the world come to L.A. because it often sets the tone for styles that wind up in stores many months down the road.
While jeans and swimsuits will continue to have a big presence at the show, “we’re trying to mix it up a little bit,” said Davis Factor, Max Factor heir and co-owner of Smashbox. “We like to show a range of clothes from daywear to evening wear, with a little more leaning to eveningwear. You can’t show the same thing over and over.”
Some examples: Karanina is featuring skirts, tops, vintage reworked jeans, chiffon day dresses and evening jersey dresses; Kevan Hall is showing evening wear in chiffon, silk, beads and crystals; Da-Nang offers a new dress line called Rangoon; and Saja’s show is meant to reflect an American girl going on a European trip sometime around 1960.
“Because Los Angeles is such a new venue for an established group of shows under one roof, it’s raised the bar a little bit for designers to create designs that are even better than in the past,” said Factor. “So many more people are looking at what we’re doing. We’re being judged, written about, praised and criticized so much more than ever.”
And putting on a weeklong fashion spree is not for the faint of heart. In the world of high-octane egos, it’s not just a question of making it on the run list it’s day, time and venue that really matter.
Da-Nang is showing its designs at 7 p.m. on Friday, an improvement over last year when it went in the afternoon earlier in the week. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” said Mikey Koffman, a publicist for the designer. “I called every day for almost two weeks because I wanted a really good time slot.”
When the designer originally slated for the 7 p.m. slot was unable to do the show, Da-Nang got its wish.
Lining up slots
The most coveted slots are in the evening on Thursday and Friday, when all the big retail buyers are in town.
The most inexpensive slot, located in the “Lightbox” studio inside Smashbox, starts at $1,500; the most expensive, at the main tent, maxes out at around $6,000. That’s still a fraction of what it costs to participate in the New York show, where designers pay anywhere from $18,000 to $42,000.
The first show will be from Toronto-based Arthur Mendonca, who will present at 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25. The last show, from L.A.’s Louis Verdad, is at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29. Verdad, who has outfitted the likes of Madonna and Cate Blanchett, also claimed the finale as “his slot” the previous two seasons.
“It’s pretty magical,” said Louis Verdad Production Manager Evelyn Drapkin, noting that the company has had no problem securing the prime position. “He’s the hottest thing around right now and they pretty much give us what we want.” In going last, all of the buyers are in town and there is a high press turnout, as well.
Karanina’s Kara Smith had wanted a show after 5 p.m. on Thursday or Friday. Instead, her show will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. “We had the choice of whether we wanted to continue,” she said. “We chose to because we see a lot of value with the show. It helped our line tremendously last year.”
Now, with a lot of RSVPs, Smith said she is “less disappointed” than she was at first.
Kevan Hall sees the benefits of showing earlier in the week a 7 p.m. slot on Monday night. “We’re thrilled,” said Deborah Lee, office manager for the company. “We’re opening up Fashion Week.”
Factor said mid-day is actually a better time to reach editors who have deadlines and would prefer not to work all day and into the night.
Saja, which has the first show on Tuesday morning instead of its requested Thursday, was able to get East Coast buyers from Anthropologie, Saks Fifth Avenue, New York Look and Scoop to see its work, said Yoo Lee, owner and designer.
“At the end, it did end up working out,” said Lee. “There’s something exciting about being the first show of the day. The longer the show goes on, there’s so much information that people get bored or tired of all the visuals they have to see.”
Still, other designers are taking control of their own destiny by scheduling their own shows during the week. For instance, 2 Be Free is having a party at a private residence in West Hollywood. Sponsored by Steve Madden, the event will feature a catwalk set up over a swimming pool, a red carpet, and gift bags for the 500 attendees.
“We wanted to do our own private event and have a show with a touch of our own style added to it,” said 2 Be Free designer Yves Benaroch. “You’re not just seeing a show and being able to leave. Everyone will be able to stay and enjoy themselves.”
This is the second fall show that Smashbox and 7th on Sixth, a division of events promoter IMG World, have created together. The two were previously rivals creating separate runway shows during L.A.’s semi-annual fashion week.
“At first it was really weird,” said Factor, who has stepped back from chores such as scheduling (although he discusses with 7th on Sixth which designers to include). “There was a feeling-out period. They were doing their thing and we were doing ours and we’ve got a lot of egos.”
However, he added, “all of the ideas they had about how horrible it was going to be went down the drain,” once the two started working together to elevate Los Angeles fashion.
