California Apparel News

Organizers of the L.A. Fashion Awards are taking a break this season after drawing a veritable who’s who of Los Angeles designers and industry executives to their event for the past three years.

The event was originally scheduled for October, but co-founder Jen Uner cited the current economy as the reason for the change in plans.

“The L.A. Fashion Awards have tremendous support from the fashion community, but the business community hasn’t been able to step up the way it needs to happen to build the event,” she said. “Rather than produce something that is subpar, we decided to postpone it. We’re not interested in compromising the quality of the experience or the gravity of the honor.”

The L.A. Fashion Awards was founded in 2005 by Uner and Mary Hill. The annual event drew such industry notables as designer Bob Mackie, who served as a presenter, retailer Ron Herman, who received the “Fashion Retailer Award” in 2005, and stylist and costume designer Arianne Phillips, who was honored in 2006. That year, Uner and Hill were invited by NASDAQ to lead a closing-bell ceremony in New York. Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended the event. After addressing the crowd, the mayor watched the event with BCBG owners Max and Lubov Azria, who received the “Fashion Achievement Award.”

Uner and Hill’s event filled a void left when the California Mart (now called the California Market Center) stopped producing its California Designer of the Year awards.

For several years, Los Angeles had no event to showcase and celebrate its local design talent. And while the L.A. Fashion Awards offered a glitzy snapshot of the industry—and a much-needed networking venue—some complained that the many runway presentations, nominee spotlights and acceptance speeches went on too long.

Uner and Hill took that into consideration in planning the 2009 event, which may feature a new format.

“Our plan is to do a smaller, more-VIP event that is less about stage productions and more about celebrating the industry,” Uner said.

Although she didn’t rule out the possibility of staging runway shows, she said she and Hill were looking at other possibilities. “We like the idea of doing gallery installations because the piece can continue after the event as a showcase to the public,” she said.Although dates have not been set, Uner said holding the event at the start of Los Angeles Fashion Week in the Fall helped bring retailers to the show.

“We always like the October time frame because we got great buyer traffic,” she said.

The event organizers are also working on lining up partners for 2009. Past sponsors included Saturn, FedEx, Wells Fargo Century, Moss Adams LLP and Supima.

“Curating these things takes cash,” she said. “We’ve had some amazing support, and we need to grow that like any media property. We believe we can have the partners and the funding in place to do something exceptional. [The L.A. Fashion Awards] was created with the intention of shining a spotlight on the very best of California design talent, and we’d like to continue to do so.”—Alison A. Nieder