California Apparel News

The marriage is over.

Smashbox Studios, the commercial photography studio run by Dean and Davis Factor in Culver City, Calif., and IMG, the big New York organizer of fashion weeks around the world, will no longer work together to organize Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios after this October show.

The split had been rumored for months, but it is now official.

IMG would not comment about the separation, saying only that it was 100 percent focused on the current fashion week in Los Angeles.

The two joined forces 10 seasons ago after each party had dueling fashion-week events that split buyers’ and stylists’ loyalties about which shows to attend.

IMG came to Los Angeles in March 2003, putting together an extensive list of runway shows held at the Standard Downtown Hotel in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Dean and Davis Factor held separate events in their vast studios housed in a warehouse-sized building. The two forces decided to put their power together in 2004 and hold a combined event that would take advantage of Smashbox’s great venue and IMG’s organizing power.

According to Davis Factor, the split was amicable

“We have a great relationship [with IMG],” he said. “I tip my hat off for what they have done for the event. It is a breakup, but we are on excellent terms.”

Indeed, Davis confirmed that Smashbox Cosmetics will continue to sponsor the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim event in Miami Beach, Fla.

The two sides started discussing going their separate ways a few months ago.

Factor said there was no one reason for the breakup. “We looked at what we wanted and what they wanted and where they wanted to put their energy,” he said. “We are here and we are going to attempt to keep it going.”

The Smashbox event is likely to move away from its current location—possibly to Hollywood, Davis confirmed. Smashbox’s Culver City space houses 11 studios—often in high demand.

“I would like to free up the studios,” Davis said, adding that during fashion week, the company has to turn down business for a month as the studios prepare the space and then break it down after the runway shows.

“It is tough when we have to turn down that business,” he said. “It is great to have it there, but we have all our businesses to think about, as well.”

Hollywood’s central location would be convenient for people coming from downtown and those coming from the Westside of Los Angeles, he added.

Davis said he and his brother want to create something that is “unique to Los Angeles.”

They are currently scouting locations for the next season’s show and should have something decided in the next few months.

“We have a good feel for who is here and what is here and how things work here,” he said. “With six years of doing fashion shows, we have the expertise to produce an event.”

In recent years, IMG has set up international fashion shows in Mumbai, India; Berlin; London; and Sydney, Australia. IMG also organizes Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. —Deborah Belgum