Blue Runway
At the last Los Angeles Fashion Week, an entire evening was devoted to denim collections. Skeptics must surely have looked down the ends of their noses and said, “Does denim really belong on the runway?”
“Absolutely!” says Melissa D’Atilio emphatically. “Why not?”
Granted, D’Atilio may be a bit biased. The New York–based owner of Fly Productions produced three of denim night’s runway shows for Blue Holdings, which owns Antik Denim, Yanuk, and Taverniti. For D’Atilio, producing shows for denim brands is every bit as exciting as producing shows for Bill Blass or Diane von Furstenberg, two of her New York clients.
With Taverniti, for example, “I was so impressed by their talent and what they did with denim, working with crinoline skirts and distressing things. It was just so brilliant in an artistic way,” she says.
Yes, fashion can be art, even if the medium is denim.
As show producer, it was D’Atilio’s job to craft a 15-minute show shouting loud and clear each brand’s unique identity. She created the lighting and staging, hired the DJ and stylists, and also oversaw the hair and makeup. And because all the brands produce primarily bottoms, it allowed her an extra level of creativity. “We went out and shopped for shoes, shirts, hats, and all kinds of accessories,” D’Atilio says. “It was actually a lot of fun, because you see a brand and understand its identity and then you get to go out and enhance it.”
Antik, for example, “is very rock ’n’ roll, but with a lot of vintage cowboy stuff” that required it to be presented accordingly. “Every company has a message,” she continues. “It was so easy to follow Antik’s ideal of what denim is about.
“Then, with Yanuk, it’s a much more avant-garde feel. And it’s important for the buyers to see this [through the way the show is produced].”
For those who think only couture belongs on the runway, perhaps it’s time to put away such antiquated notions of what a fashion show should be. D’Atilio believes the runway should reflect the kind of clothing people actually wear. “Denim is a huge business. Everyone you know has a pair of jeans, and I think it’s really important to have that on the runway because every season they come out with new washes, colors, and various ways to treat and handle it.”
And with Los Angeles the world’s denim capital, it’s not hard to imagine more than one night during Fashion Week devoted to everyone’s favorite fabric. “Denim is so important in L.A. as a fashion statement,” says D’Atilio, “more so than anywhere else in the U.S.” —Christian Chensvold
