Los Angeles Fashion Week Fall 2001: Alicia Lawhorn
Alicia Lawhon wins the award for best dance routine in a fashion show with her hoedown at the woodsy Big Foot Lodge in Atwater Village on April 2. The show started off with a “yee-ha”—literally—as models country-danced down a narrow floor-level runway between the audience and the bar. Lawhon delivered a better view of her “Homegrown” look later when her dancing models were joined by “poseur” models (as Lawhon put it) to take their turn in the spotlight of cameras.
“The title of the show is called ’Homegrown’ because it has a lot of handcrafted elements to it. The inspiration is Big Sur in the ’70s—early Bob Dylan,” said Lawhon. “With that in mind, I went to the table and recreated that kind of macrameacute;, patch-worked, handcrafted effect.”
It’s that handcrafted effect that has become the designer’s trademark, but this season, Lawhon said she dug much deeper.
Her collection of completely reconstructed clothing could, at first, seem confusing. But take off all the layers and look at each piece of clothing individually and they do all have their own special thing.
“I take advantage of space,” said Lawhon. “If I have an opportunity to do a contrast inside a collar or to add a contrast to the inside of a cuff or the inside of a shirt, I take advantage of it. I definitely see each pattern piece as an opportunity and I take it.” —Joselle Yokogawa
