California Apparel News

Consider the new and improved Los Angeles Fashion Week a work in progress.

Once a schizophrenic event that divided the Los Angeles fashion world into two locations, the recent fashion week took place at one venue, Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif. The week, which ran from March 29 to April 2, also took on a new name: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios.

Despite the unity, there were several glitches that the event’s producers will have to work out before the next fashion week in late October.

Organization needs to improve to make the five-day event run more smoothly. Valet parking this season was once again an exercise in patience, and crowd control got downright rude at times.

“I thought the security there was like the Gestapo,” said Laura Duncan, a Los Angeles celebrity stylist who complained about the scrutiny she and her friends underwent to obtain seating even though they had secured seating assignments before the shows.

Others complained about the crammed entryway, where paparazzi jostled for space with hungry fashionistas grabbing a bite at the outdoor cafeacute; while fire marshals and police officers looked on; the hills of smelly trash piled up at the studio’s west side; and the relatively few headlining designer names on the runway.

“What is still missing is a real designer presence,” said Michael Fink, senior fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, who was in Los Angeles to attend 85 percent of the 37 runway shows. “I’m talking about the absence of people like David Cardona and Magda Berliner. But the caliber of the shows was much more interesting in that it was less denim and casual sweat dressing.”

Everyone agreed that having the shows at one location instead of two—one in downtown Los Angeles and one in Culver City—reduced commuting hell for most people.

“The journey to Smashbox in Culver City versus to downtown was a much easier journey to make,” said Tod Hallman, a celebrity stylist who attended some of the shows with actress Amber Tamblyn, the star of the television show “Joan of Arcadia,” and Kimberly Elise, a young actress starring in the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate.” “But I think we are on our way. I think Los Angeles designers are starting to realize the importance of showing.”

Fixing Fashion Week

None of these complaints was lost on Fern Mallis, executive director of 7th on Sixth. When the East Coast group, which also organizes New York’s Olympus FashionWeek at Bryant Park, launched its first Los Angeles fashion event last spring, it went head to head with the runway shows organized during the same week by Smashbox Studios. The same thing happened last October, when the Spring 2004 collections were shown. The 34 runway shows organized by 7th on Sixth took place at the Downtown Standard Hotel and surrounding buildings at the same time the 25 shows organized by Smashbox Studios occurred. Many journalists spent as much time writing about the growing rivalry between the two show producers as they did about the burgeoning fashion scene.

So on Feb. 12, after a phone call between Mallis and Dean Factor, who owns Smashbox Studios with his brother, Davis, the two groups announced they would merge. Then their frantic work began.

“I hope people have patience and understand how fast we worked to combine the various teams, sponsorships, representatives and two different sales groups that we had to bring to the same table,” said Mallis, noting that the producers reorganized the event in about three to four weeks. “We were very pleased with the way it went this time. The shows were good. The collections were good. We think the press was very positive and supportive. I think the combined venue and partnership with Smashbox Studios was the right thing to do, and I am pleased that [the rivalry] is not an issue any longer. We like the venue.”

More improvements to come?

Mallis said that she and her colleagues are working on ways to improve the Spring 2005 runway shows. Previously, she talked about moving up the dates of the shows to be closer to the European shows in Milan and Paris.

“That is still being discussed,” she noted. “But I am not sure it can happen next season. There is a conversation in the formative stages.”

But there will be improvements in valet parking, the flow of people at the entryway and seating reservations, she said.

Mallis would like to start the shows at 9 a.m. instead of 11 a.m. but realizes the Los Angeles crowd prefers to attend shows later in the day and in the evening. “In New York and Europe, we start at 9 a.m. You have to maximize every hour that you have,” she said.

Mallis said she was not sure if the pricing will stay the same. Currently, runways rent for $1,500 to $6,000, depending on the location and the time of day. “We obviously don’t like to raise prices. That is not our goal,” she said, noting that the Los Angeles runways are a bargain compared with the $14,000 to $46,000 cost of runways at Bryant Park.

Pros and cons

The designers who presented their Fall 2004 collections at Smashbox were generally pleased with the location. Nony Tochterman, the creator of the Petro Zillia label, said she would have preferred to be in downtown Los Angeles, where she showed the last two seasons, but had no complaints about Smashbox Studios. “I felt it was running smoother and people had better energy,” she said, noting it was easier for her to unload her fashions at the Culver City location than in downtown Los Angeles. Parking was less of a hassle, too, she said.

Designer Richard Tyler, who showed the last two seasons at the Downtown Standard Hotel, said he was happy with the Smashbox location but thought the behind-the-runway area was a bit dark. He was relieved that valet parking cost only $12 instead of the $25 the Standard had charged.

Missing from this season’s lineup was David Cardona, who said he decided not to participate in fashion week because he felt the international press coverage was falling off and the quality of the lines on the runway was down.

“To me, it seemed like it was more sportswear and denim more than anything else,” he said. “When you do this sort of thing, there has to be a return for what you put into it.”

But everyone observed that Los Angeles Fashion Week is still evolving.

“It is only in its third season and still has a lot of maturing to do,” Mallis said. “This is not meant to be New York in a season, or Paris or Milan. This is L.A., which has a different vibe.”