California Apparel News

Los Angeles designers are expecting better press coverage and more organization during the upcoming Los Angeles Fashion Week now that Smashbox Studios and IMG’s Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. have joined forces to produce the semiannual event at one location instead of two competing venues.

Smashbox Studios, the commercial photography studio in Culver City, Calif., owned by brothers Dean and Davis Factor, is one of the big winners in this melding of fashion minds. Los Angeles Fashion Week will be held at the studio in an event now called Mercedes- Benz FashionWeek at Smashbox Studios. IMG, which started organizing Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. last year, had held its fashion events in and around the Downtown Standard Hotel.

The combined event will be held March 29–April 2, right as buyers begin to arrive for Los Angeles Market Week, which will run April 1–6 in the downtown Fashion District.

The Factors will dedicate one more runway to the five-day show. In addition to the Main Tent and Stage One, the Factors will add a new runway space called The Lightbox.

“We are looking at about 40 shows, depending on demand, but we could fit as many as 45,” Dean Factor said.

During last October’s Fashion Week, Smashbox organized 25 shows and MBSLA had another 34. Not all the designers who signed up for the last Fashion Week season will be able to present their collections at Smashbox this spring. Already, some designers are planning off-site shows to fill the venue void.

Catwalk compromise

MBSLA, owned by sports and entertainment marketing company IMG, originally had contemplated holding its runway shows a week earlier, March 24–27, at Hangar 8 at the Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Smashbox had planned to hold its shows March 27–April 2. But Fern Mallis, executive director of 7th on Sixth, the fashion week production division of IMG, and Davis Factor, chief creative director of Smashbox, announced on Feb. 12 in New York that they would join forces.

There will not only be just one location but also less down time between shows, Dean Factor said. The producers will hold three runway shows in three hours, with a one-hour break before the next set of three shows.

Dean and Davis Factor are working on logistics to accommodate more people. That means making sure there is enough parking and food. The Smashbox studio complex has a small cafeacute;, but the restaurant is not big enough to cater to a large crowd. Last season, when the cafeacute; closed in the evening, a sushi bar opened up.

Pricier shows

With less competition, the cost to rent a venue at Smashbox is increasing. Last season, Smashbox charged between $1,000 and $1,200 to rent a runway. At MBSLA, runways went for $750 to $4,500. MBSLA also subsidized the runway shows of a few designers under the banner “Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. Presents.”

This season, the merged group is charging $3,500 to $6,000 for the Main Tent, which seats 571; $2,000 to $4,000 for Stage One, which seats 242, and $1,500 to $3,500 for The Lightbox, which seats 154. The price gets more expensive as the day progresses. Shows will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 10 p.m.

Mallis—who flew in from New York on Feb. 19 to outline the new format to designers at Smashbox Studios—said she hopes the press stops writing about the conflict between the two venues and focuses on the creative energy in Los Angeles.

“We hope the media write about the talent and designers who are here and elevate this industry, bringing it to the level it belongs,” she said.

Mallis also noted she would like to move up the dates of the fashion shows to be right after Paris’ Premiere Vision Fashion Week, which this year is Feb. 25–28.

Attending the evening event at Smashbox were several designers including Louis Verdad, Eduardo Lucero, Magda Berliner, Darren Gold, Monah Li, Sheri Bodell, David Cardona and Lloyd Klein.

The combined venue left many veteran fashion show followers happy they would no longer have to choose between making the downtown event or whizzing over to Culver City to attend the Smashbox fashion shows.

“I think it is a better idea instead of running around the L.A. Basin,” said stylist Tod Hallman, whose clients include actress Portia di Rossi. “The powers that be can’t be at two shows at once. I was at Smashbox to see House of Field last time and wanted to go downtown for another show right after that. But then I thought: ’No way. Something has to be sacrificed.’ ”

One locale is a bonus for models, who had to zip back and forth between shows last season.

“I say good for them for putting their differences aside and joining forces,” said designer Nony Tochterman, who with her husband, Yosi Drori, has shown contemporary women’s line Petro Zillia at MBSLA’s event. “The whole frenzy of the media running from one venue to another will stop. They will be able to focus on the show and not be stuck in traffic.”

While most are pleased the two fashion factions have joined forces, not everyone is pleased with holding their shows at the photo studio, located in an industrial warehouse area of Culver City.

“I personally would have liked to have kept it downtown, but it seems that space is a problem, and parking for 7th on Sixth’s show was a nightmare,” said Los Angeles designer Sue Wong, who has shown at the last two MBSLA shows at the Downtown Standard Hotel. “A lot of my buyers would start to come to the show, but then couldn’t find a bus or had an aversion to paying $25 for parking. Or if they wanted to pay less, they didn’t want to walk six blocks.... So I say, ’If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.’ ”

According to publicist Ted Byrnes of London Misher Public Relations in Beverly Hills, which did the publicity for Frankie B.’s and Magda Berliner’s fashion shows, no location will satisfy everyone.

“You have all these different groups with a different location preference,” Byrnes said. “There is the Hollywood group, the Westside group, the downtown group.”

He added that one locale will enable everyone to focus on the business of fashion.