IMG Moves Fashion Week Dates
IMG, the New York–based producer of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios, has set the dates for the Los Angeles event a week earlier than Los Angeles Fashion Market, splitting the two events, which had run back-to-back in recent seasons.
MBFW will be held Oct. 14–18 at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif., leaving fashion followers more than a week before Los Angeles Fashion Market kicks off for its five-day run on Oct. 26.
The move separates the Smashbox shows from several industry events, including trade shows Designers and Agents, Brighte Cos. and Boutique Lingerie, all set for Oct. 26–29 at The New Mart and the Cooper Design Space, the California Market Center, and the Gerry Building, respectively. L.A. Fashion Awards, which has straddled the two events since its inception in 2005, will be held on Oct. 26 at the Orpheum Theatre.
Few seemed bothered by the date change.
Ed Mandelbaum, co-owner of the Designers and Agents show, said there are no plans to change his show’s dates to follow IMG’s. Mandelbaum noted that Smashbox’s new dates conflict with Dallas Market Week.
Jen Uuml;ner, organizer of the L.A. Fashion Awards, said she enjoyed having her event follow the Smashbox shows but preferred to hold her event on opening day of market.
“I think that’s more convenient for out-of-town retailers,” she said.
Uuml;ner noted that IMG’s event this year will fall just a few days after the Los Angeles Majors Market, held Oct. 8–10 at the CMC, and two days after Gen Art’s Fresh Faces in Fashion runway event. “In tracking the calendar of events for Fashion Week, we are seeing October is fashion month in L.A.,” she said.
“Personally, I think it should be yet earlier,” said Uuml;ner, who is a past president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Fashion Group International, which hosts runway trend forums twice a year. “We’re so far behind London, New York, Paris that we often see recap reports before L.A. is even done.”
The date change also puts the Smashbox shows at the same time as the Los Angeles International Textile Show. In the past, many of the designers who show at Smashbox also shop the textile show.
The overlap with the textile show could be a problem for textile firms that show in Los Angeles and count among their customers many of the designers who show at Smashbox.
John Marshall, West Coast sales manager for Solstiss/Bucol, said the overlap between the Smashbox dates and the textile show presented both advantages and disadvantages to his business. Marshall’s company represents high-end French fabric mills Solstiss and Bucol.
The multiple, overlapping events could give the week a more-international scope, Marshall noted. “It will impose Los Angeles as a real fashion city as the likes of Paris and New York,” he said. “On the other hand, I do not think that the designers will have time to visit the L.A. Textile Show. They will be focused on their [runway] shows.”—Alison A. Nieder
