California Apparel News

The lights have barely cooled on the first “official” San Francisco Fashion Week, but the city is already gearing up for its first “official” San Francisco International Fashion Week.

It’s official. San Francisco has two fashion weeks. In a situation that mirrors the start of Los Angeles Fashion Week, two groups have set their sights on San Francisco as home of the next fashion week.

One is a grass-roots effort with plenty of local designers on the bill; the other has loaded the lineup with several internationally known names.

In late August, San Francisco–based event organizer Mystery Girl Productions hosted San Francisco Fashion Week with a slate of 14 designers, including Los Angeles–based Rock and Republic and Italian label Fornarina as well as San Francisco lines Hieros, Colleen Quen Couture, Besnik and others.

The latest effort, San Francisco International Fashion Week, will present such well-known names as Zac Posen, Stephen Burrows, Lloyd Klein and Zang Toi Oct. 21–23 at Pier 48 on the San Francisco waterfront. So far, seven designers are on the bill, with space remaining for a few more. At press time, organizers were finalizing plans to add a “hot young designer from Miami” to the lineup. The SFIFW calendar also includes opening- and closing-night parties and other fashion events. The week is being organized by Jacinta Productions San Francisco, the fashion show management and promotions company for Blue Marlin Corp., Alice Roi, Yoya Boutique and Cirque Du Soleil.

Corporate sponsors include Bentley San Francisco, W Hotel San Francisco, Dare to Wear cosmetics, Dittie feminine products and Benefit Cosmetics, and media sponsors include L’Officiel magazine, 7x7 Magazine, Lucire magazine and KDFC Classical radio station.

SFIFW plans to kick off the week with an invitation-only awards luncheon at the Four Seasons hotel, where veteran New York designer Stephen Burrows will receive a Lifetime Achievement in Fashion award. Another designer on the week’s slate will receive a yet-to-be-announced award at the event. The luncheon will feature live and silent auctions to benefit the Arthritis Foundation.

San Francisco International Fashion Week has been in the works since February, according to Jacinta Law, founder of Jacinta Productions.

“Fashion has really resonated in San Francisco,” Law said. “We found that people are hungry for it. We wanted to outreach to the local designers and also bring in some really fabulous names to San Francisco.”

Making introductions

The event’s organizers handpicked the designers. Designer Lloyd Klein was contacted and asked to participate, according to John Arguelles, president of California-based Groupe Klein Vendome Inc., which produces the collection, designed in Paris.

Last season, Klein opened the Los Angeles Fashion Week shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios. SFIFW organizers persuaded Klein to show this season in San Francisco.

“They contacted us and said they were trying to encourage major international fashion designers to participate,” Arguelles said. “They are extremely organized. That’s one of the reasons why we said yes right away.”

Arguelles said the SFIFW show also represents an opportunity to introduce the Lloyd Klein collection to the San Francisco consumer. “For us, it’s more than a press event— it’s exposure to a new community,” he said.

The company recently showed its Spring collection in New York during Olympus Fashion Week, where Klein presented the collection as a tableau vivant against a backdrop of mirrored platforms. Arguelles said the company will not put on the same show in San Francisco but will present pieces from the same collection.

Law said she plans to hold SFIFW twice a year, either before or after Los Angeles Fashion Week in March and October. “The timing seems to work,” she said.

Organizers are anticipating between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees each day. The show will be open to the public, although Law stressed the event is geared toward the fashion industry.

“There’s a lot of curiosity; we wanted to make it more inclusive to the city of San Francisco,” she said.

Still, Law and her staffers have been calling key buyers to give them personal invitations to the shows.

The shows will begin in the evening, although Law said eventually she plans to add daytime shows. Because there will be just one runway, attendees will have the chance to visit the sponsor lounges between shows. Two shuttle buses will ferry fashion week attendees from several host hotels to the events at Pier 48. General admission, VIP and student tickets will be sold on the SFIFW Web site, www.sfifw.com.