Port of Los Angeles Towing theFashion Line
Who says port people aren't fashionable?
Just check out the mannequin the Port of Los Angeles designed for The Mannequin Collective, a competition organized by the soon-to-open Santa Monica Place shopping mall.
Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles and the first woman to hold that position, received an e-mail inviting community leaders, retailers and fashion designers to decorate 100 blank mannequins to be displayed at the mall's opening on Aug. 6.
"When I got the e-mail, I thought, 'This is so cool,' " said Knatz, who has a doctorate in biological science. Knatz began rounding up her friends who belong to the Ladies of Logistics, a group of about 50 women who work in companies doing buisness on the waterfront. "I said, 'Okay. Give me all your ideas.'"
She got some creative input and some plain off-the-wall suggestions. One person suggested they fashion a dress from the material used to form cargo containers. But that was too thick. They ended up using sheet metal. Another person suggested they use a small crane as a hat. But that was a tad impractical.
What they came up with is the very fashionable "Diva of the Docks," whose sheet-metal dress is trimmed with fake fur. She wears a pink hard hat and has an ILWU tattoo on one arm, representing the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Various logos from the companies on the docks emblazon the metal dress.
Knatz was tempted to adorn the dress with rhinestones, but then she heard rhinestones were out. That's when she ran down to Michaels, the arts-and-crafts store, to purchase some fake fur.
On Aug. 6, the Ladies of Logistics will be carpooling up to Santa Monica Place to see how their mannequin stacks up against the other 99 in the collective. The mannequins will be on display and judged for their creativity. The top five mannequins will then be displayed at the Westchester campus of the Otis College of Art Design and later at the fashioin campus at the California Market Center.
One mannequin will be declared the winner with Santa Monica Place donating $10,000 for an Otis scholarship in the winner's name.
Let's root for the Ladies of Logistics and their "Diva of the Docks."
