LA Fashion Week...Is Anybody Going??

LA fashion week is just around the corner yet forever lost in the wake of the better-known fashion circuit of NY, London, Milan & Paris. With an economy as large as California, (according to the World Fact Book published by the CIA, if California were an independent state it would be the 10th largest economy in the world…and that’s is the lesson for today class!) how can it be that a place with so much wealth and commerce cannot get the rest of the world to notice and support its designers? These thoughts were solidified last season when Smashbox and IMG severed their fashion week partnership, Smashbox reps saying, “Nothing against [IMG], but I think that New York is their big focus and it’s difficult with everything they have going on all over the world. It would be hard for them to do L.A. on the level they do New York.”

When the rest of the country thinks of LA fashion, is all that comes to mind ripped jeans, flip flops, and bedazzled terry cloth playsuits? This could this be due to the closely intertwined entertainment industry overshadowing the fashion industry. There seems to be more attention on award show fashion coming from California.

There is the exception, like Richard Tyler, who was a fashion god in LA until he “sold out” to New York and corporate sponsorship (can LA catch a break!?) However, after taking a second look we discovered the caliber of designers like Tadashi, Louis Verdad and Eduardo Lucero is similar to designers showing in New York, yet they hardly get the attention they deserve. There seems to be so much potential to sell in California markets, maybe we should all start paying attention!