California Apparel News

As part of its virtual approach to fashion exhibition, Fashion Week San Diego officially announced that it will host “Art and Beauty Behind Fashion” in July through a partnership with Sotheby's and the Art Renewal Center. Originally scheduled to take place in New York City, the organizations shifted focus to a virtual show, which is in line with FWSD's recent focus on digital events. The virtual FWSD events began on May 15 with a presentation from designer Vaughnberry and have been hosted in response to the need for fashion insiders to connect during shelter-in-place orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are beyond excited to be part of this groundbreaking virtual exhibition,” Gwen Bates, director of FWSD, said. “Although we would have loved to celebrate our designers’ spectacular work together in New York City as planned, the opportunity to mount a virtual exhibition on Sotheby’s website will provide heightened exposure for our designers to showcase their work on a global scale. Our main goal when planning FWSD’s 2020 programming was to ensure our efforts were designer focused, and this distinguished exhibition gives our emerging designers a much larger platform than I could have ever dreamed of.”

"The Art and Beauty Behind Fashion" will be presented between July 13-31 on Sotheby's.com. Inspired by pieces from the 14th ARC Salon Competition, eight FWSD designers will debut couture works that have been paired with complementary ARC designs. Models will remain socially distant and the exhibition will feature 99 ARC Salon works. Throughout the 18-day showing, viewers may vote from home fro their favorite designer.

“So much work goes into creating an exhibition like this, not only on the part of the Art Renewal Center, but the work done by all of the artists who spent months or years creating their masterpieces,” Kara Lysandra Ross, co-chair and chief operating officer of ARC, said. “To be able to combine a fine art exhibition with a fashion event like this, where an entirely separate group of artists working in a different art form can come together in cooperation, brings the experience to a whole different level. I feel very grateful to be able to be a part of this timeless expression of our shared humanity.”