MB Fashion Week: Day 4: Tulle & Clothe Logic- Row 4

Fashion history always repeats itself in some way, shape, or form. Most designers do not need to reinvent the wheel to sell a product. Such is true for the two independent labels Tulle and Cloth Logic who combined their pieces for a colorful runway show. The first look showed a modern version of a pink fifties skirt, complete with a beehive with a yellow bow sticking in it. The menswear grasped firmly onto the nerdy chic that is in right now, rolled up jeans, sweaters, argyle, thick specs, loafers, and unwashed hair. Socks were paired with the pumps... I love it and young Hollywood is very into it right now.. very preppy, sexy librarian from Pleasantville. There was a bit of a cross over into a London style too with all the flats and mix matching. The stylist for the show did an amazing job with taking simpler pieces and pairing them with different colors or patterns or accessories to make an interesting look. All in all, a very fun, youthful, and playful!
Bag bonus: WINNER OF THE GROUP, the swag bag included a mustard cami, a g-pa sweater (good quality too), china glaze nail polish in Revolution, a Smashbox lip pencil, Think! food products, and a small container of moisturizer all in a eco-friendly tote perfect for grocery shopping!

MB Fashion Week: Day 4: Leila Hafzi- Row 3

The Leila Hafzi collection for Spring/Summer 2009 combines an elegant safari look with a fresh color palette. Soft, flowing materials are very in for the next season but the silhouettes in this collection are forgiving to the less than perfect bodies. Her mustard yellow fabric is vivacious and perfect for her overall theme, it is what the fashion forward would wear on their trip through Africa. A salmon colored tunic with a cartoon ape on the front is an interesting new take on playful but sophisticated. Although some of the dresses were a little simplistic for my taste and some of the colors did not blend well, the collection was admirable. A gorgeous peacock tunic at the finale of the show was the perfect close.
Bag Bonus: peacock sacks that mimic the final dress of the evening, Nounou shampoo and conditioner in luscious scents, and a hint water- not a bad bag for a smaller show!

MB Fashion Week: Day 3: Christian Audigier

As if purchasing a billboard size poster of his portrait hanging on a building 2 blocks from Smashbox Studios was not outlandish enough, Christian Audigier's runway was covered in astro-turf most in an attempt to resemble a stroll in rockstar fantasy land perhaps. In a word...tacky. More descriptive would be if Slash and High School Musical were to have a child, that child would resemble this show. Models would walk out in over-the-top looks with neon green top-hats, huge American flags, or real English dogs on leashes. While the use of the red plaid was kind of fun and edgy, it was overdone in that every ensemble used the same plaid material. It is no wonder that LA Fashion Week does not receive the same media attention that the others do, this designer was actually permitted to show two collections this week. The only piece that was marketable for me was a black hoodie that was covered in sequins. Mostly, it was just plaid for the whole collection...moving on!

MB Fashion Week: Day 3: Crispin & Basilio- Fifth Row

In a slightly more personal venue at Smashbox Studios, Donny Barrios- the master mind behind Crispin & Basilio- presented his collection which he considered "innately Californian". I found it to be modern and fresh, while retaining a classic glamour but to be honest, it might even be too good for LA. Barrios really understands a traditional woman's body and a modern woman's needs as most most of us gals in this consumer conscious economy are looking for pieces that can transition from day to night with very little effort. Comfort is a must because really you are less likely to wear something that you know you are going to have to endure all day- even if it is cute- Pain and Beauty are no longer walking hand in hand like they used to- they are more like friends by association. Barrios materials were flattering and appear to be soft to the touch. I was not even bothered by the more simple color palette because the versatility of the separates- you can really mix and match! Barrios line has one very unique characteristic that you don't usually find in other LA designers- it can be worn by a variety of women. The fresh look is as age appropriate for the mature 22-year old student as a hip 35-year-old business woman, a fact that makes Crispin & Basilio a remarkably relevant brand for the times. Kudos Donny!

MB Fashion Week- Day 2: Maggie Barry

Most of the shows in Fashion Week have an identical format, models walking up and down the runway one at a time, showing off each part of the collection. Every now and again you will have two models walking down at once, or maybe there will be a performance at the beginning of the show (ie an opera singer for Julia Clancey or a dance piece to Kanye West for Christian Audigier), but for the most part, the clothing is the most exciting part of the show. But for the Maggie Barry show, costume type collections were accompanied by circus performers, expert hula hoopers, belly dancers, violin artists and a sultry-Enrique Iglesias-type flamenco dancer (do I have your attention yet). The show started, in true Maggie Barry fashion, with 2 female ringmasters- a little person and a fully decked out Dita-Von-Tese type- in matching attire to introduce the show. Not only did the talent perform, but they were the models alongside a few real models. The collections consisted of costume type outfits, some cheap, but some really beautifully constructed. A favorite for me was a yellow puffy skirt with an amazingly detailed white top and paired with little white ruffle socks and ivory shoes, very porcelain doll. My gush moment: seeing Jeffrey Sebelia- winner of Project Runway Season 3 and designer for Cosa Nostra, watching girlfriend Cassandra Church model my favorite piece from the show. Some of the ensembles left their classiness (and half of their material) at the door, however because of the nature of the circus theme, you are more forgiving of some"freak show" pieces walking down the runway! To say the least, it was a memorable moment for the week.

MB Fashion Week- Behind the Scenes of Julia Clancey's show

I can honestly say that my first experience working with Julia Clancey, a designer who showed at LA fashion week, was a unique experience... in a Devil Wears Prada sort of way. While it was not only my idea but my pleasure to help Julia pro bono for the day of the show, she had called me in to help her every day for 2 weeks without any sort of stipend for gas, time dedicated (sometimes upward of 10 hour days that I put in), etc. I was put in charge of lists, seating charts, transportation of clothing, playing chauffeur, while on more than one occasion she would be hanging out at the beach with her parents boogie boarding! It is not that I don't have some idea how difficult the industry can be and I am fully prepared to have to work my way up to success, but this was just a harsh display of passive aggression. As a creative designer who has done "tons of shows", Julia really should have known better. The up side: meeting my charismatic mentor George who was signed on to help me as well as some other great models/interns/designers/friends etc, working the show and viewing the amazing- St. Tropez-yacht- hopping collection before its debut on the runway, and of course any learning experience is a good learning experience. I am unhappy to report that because I am a stylist and not a PR agent, and our list was simultaneously worked on by 4 people days before the show, there were several unhappy press members who were misplaced for the show (as read in The Daily). However, the show went on, and most of the audience (as is usually the case) was unaware of the conflicts that happened back stage. As for me, I enjoyed the show for what it was and will cherish the memories I made while working MB Fashion Week 2009.

MB Fashion Week: Day 1: Whitley Kros- Front Row

"I went to Morocco..with Allen Ginsberg in my satchel and Bob Dylan in my ears. Met Alessandro and embarked on a romantic adventure.. Safari in Africa and sunsets in Greece."
This was the self proclaimed phrase on the cover of Whitley Kros' pamphlet for her show, sounds like it would be a positively organic and cultured collection right? Well, that is not what I got from the show, but it was no doubt a romantic adventure back into childhood. I got pajama party with Mary Kate Olsen's crew- literally parts brought me back to Lisa Frank, spray cheese, silk pj bottoms, off the wall prints, and amusing oversized work boots that she painted a baby blue! The colors were classic, the pieces were fun, playful and girly. The highlight of the show for me, oddly enough, was a simple white silk jumper with a plunging neckline that I couldn't help but notice was crafted exquisitely.
Bag Bonus- And the schwag bag was good, a white tank with a multi colored unicorn that I have already worn a few times, PETA inspired eye shadow, and Good Hair Day fat head volumizer (which I was actually running low on).

MB Fashion Week- Day 1: Suh- Tahn- Third Row

Bellies are in this season for the LA line Suh-Tahn, a collaboration from creative minds Shannon Natif and entrepreneur Dimitri Tcharfas And they are paired with a grease-ball hair-do for the hipsters of LA who may feel their clothing is so accidentally chic, they couldn't be bothered with general hygiene. The Spring/ Summer 2009 collection presents an interesting new spin on the "greaser" with boys in simple white t-shirts and pseduo-skinny jeans rolled up almost to pedal-pusher length, a unique idea for menswear to say the least. The bathing suits which, let's just say, would not do anyone with any form of gut any justice, are paired with a simple blazer, a sophisticated touch that I actually enjoyed. All in all, for fashion week, I wasn't terribly impressed with this particular collection, although several pieces were well made, most of the moments of interest in any one look were purely created by how simple pieces were styled together.

MB Fashion Week: Day 1: Kevan Hall- Front Row

Kevan Hall's show was the perfect start to MB Fashion Week for me. His portrayal of timeless Hollywood glamour mixed with modern color palettes was flawless and fresh. The show, titled "Stage Door" depicted the modern women in classic silhouettes, with the first few models in tailored suits and dresses in black and white and later working into alluring fluid gowns in a technicolor palette for the rest of the show. Hall began with Parisian-esque classic styles, both polished and elegant, the je ne sais quoi that we love from an Audrey Hepburn time period. I was surprised to learn that the flowing gowns are more Kevan's style because the tailoring of the more structured pieces was just beautiful. Even a black dress is uniquely constructed to make it a work of art. The mix of an azure blue with sage gave an airy feeling to one of the gowns especially when used on a floor length flowing material adorned with jewels, presenting a glamourous look that is not over the top. Another one strap dress resembled rays of light shining down across the runway, so yummy with the use of a buttery, golden yellow that we haven't seen in a silk yet. One of my favorites of the collection- a knee length dress with interwoven pleats on the top and a pleat along the bottom, in a light blue iridescent color that catches the light perfectly. I hadn't seen anything like it, and yet it still embodied a classic look that is age appropriate for Hall's clients. My least favorite- although difficult to choose in such a magnificent showing- is a navy blue gown with multi-colored crystals along the front and back of the gown- this was the only piece that seemed dated- possibly because of the use of navy- plus the crystals do not seem to work with the silky material of the gown. All in all, an amazing showing.
Bag Bonus- Kevan Hall gave out amazing totes in a very tribal print, complete with smashbox blush, lip liner, water and hair products to the elite of the audience, and I received one too! :)

This Is Fashion

Finally! After four strenuous 10-15 hour days styling the amazing wardrobe for the pilot of the soon-to-be- hit web series "This is Fashion", I get a break to gossip about the experience. The days started off around 6:30 for me, and consisted of trucking all steamers, shoes, clothes, accessories, garment racks, and Starbucks coffee to our first location, coordinating with our NEW makeup and hair professionals as our previous makeup artist called from the hospital the night before to tell us she could not make it and our hair stylists flaked (surprise surprise- this is Hollywood afterall), steaming all the clothing to be used for the day, helping unload all of the equipment, and trying to keep the models/actresses entertained while they waited for hours to get into hair and make-up. Needless to say, our first day was a little shaky as first days tend to be. But as we got the into the swing of things, we had nothing but high hopes for the incredibly funny lines of the show and the remarkable style of the models (even with the unimaginably low budget of $500 for 9 characters).
The series portrays 2 bachelors in their mid-twenties, one bi-sexual (typical of LA proper) and one straight male with gay tendencies (also typical of LA proper- but that's what I love about it). The boys share their studio apartment with 6 models from different parts of the world. There's Lisa our somewhat masculine but light-hearted Australian model, Marie the sophisticated Frenchy, Anouk- the wise but eccentric Nigerian model, Fafi our Middle-Eastern model, Jamie the mid-west oil riggers daughter played by Cody Kennedy (sister of "Internet-It-Girl" Cory Kenney), and Isadora, our hot Brazilian with lots of flavor! The girls are underestimated by our male characters who feel that their sole purpose is to "take care of their babies", a somewhat twisted paternal instinct considering that the models are grown women. Jeremy and Derek, our 2 bachelors, go about their pretentious lifestyles, threesomes with other members of their highfalutin circles, having babies with editors from top magazines, and of course manning the kitchen while the girls eat breakfast- making sure to keep their girls skinny. While the men may come off as pricks to the average viewer, their concern for the girls is actually quite heart felt and their obliviousness to the models' artistic talents (one of the model's draws a replica of a Munch painting with a box of crayons Jeremy gives to her) is a breath of fresh air to the woman viewer searching for a reason to continue watching the chauvinistic male characters drag the female models' reputation through the mud. The series definitely promotes a different kind of humor that people find hilarious or extremely offensive. It makes no difference to the creators, they have their finished pilot and they are sticking to it- as for me, I recognize a piece or art for art's sake when I see it and stick to making the characters look incredible. Stay tuned for more blog entries on the series premier including pictures of the fabulously chic fashions of up and coming LA designers worn by the girls!

Drama McQueen

Born Lee McQueen, but encouraged to change his name to something more glamorous by the late Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen's low riding “bumsters”, or pants that hung just below the butt cleavage, put him on the map in the early 90’s, and while critics were torn about the style, fans raved about them (Watson: 137). McQueen continued to add shock value to each style he developed thereafter, whether through showmanship, theatrics, or dramatic subject manner. Due to an unlikely tenure working as a couturier at Givenchy, McQueen’s work has acquired extraordinary elements of precision and tailoring. The time at Givenchy may have allowed McQueen to add an element of glamour to his usually crass work. Whether making a scene with each fashion show always outdoing the previous, or providing a type of performance art that is much more about a movement than a line of clothing, Alexander McQueen is considered one of the most influential designers of the 21st century.
He has stretched the boundaries of fashion to the point where his taste level has been criticized. For example, in his 1995 collection entitled ‘Highland Rape’, McQueen dressed his models in “bloodied, tattered lace dresses” on the London Fashion Week runways (Socha: 92). While the show was called “ aggressive and disturbing” by Women’s Wear Daily and there were accusations of a “misogynistic” theme, McQueen claimed the collection alluded to the Jacobite rebellion and the “rape” of Scotland by England (Entwistle: 202). During this time, coverage of “genocides” (especially of Bosnia and Rwanda) was particularly popular in the Western press (Entwistle: 203). McQueen’s collection also coincides with the release of the now legendary big screen hit Braveheart, which also portrayed the harsh realities of Scotland’s fight against England. McQueen has described his work as “Eclectic verging on the criminal”, showing that he embraces the spectacle aspect of his work, almost as if he is a costume designer, dressing characters for a movie (Phaidon: 303). He may very well have used this element to stand out in the saturated marketplace by using the interest in genocide as subject matter. Eventually, McQueen worked theatrical themes, not only into the clothing he designed, but also in the fashion shows themselves. In his 2008 Spring Ready to Wear collection, McQueen used elaborate head pieces as a tribute to Isabella Blow, a Vogue sylist credited for discovering several influential designers including McQueen, who committed suicide last May (some claim that McQueen was an indirect cause).
Despite McQueen’s crass manner and blue-collar roots (he is the son of a taxi driver), he was signed for a 3-year contract in 1996 as the couturier of Givenchy, a move described in The End of Fashion as Bernard Arnault’s attempt at the “power of publicity” (Agins: 48). Arnault most likely signed McQueen because of his rising popularity, whether outlandish or not, to succeed John Galliano for Givenchy. While McQueen hardly seemed an appropriate candidate for the prestige that had come to be known as haute couture, the 4 years spent at Givenchy seemed to have an immense effect on the remarkable cutting techniques he developed. The fit is similar to that of a couturier, with pain-staking attention to tailoring. Even his suits used a mixture of angles and curves to distinguish them from the traditional silhouette (Watson: 298). Though McQueen’s work continued to have shocking themes and theatrical hoopla, the later collections also have an element of glamour to them that may have developed in his time at Givenchy.
In the latter part of the 1990’s, fashion experimented with “representations of death, trauma, alienation, and decay” as is indicated in Caroline Evan’s Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness (Evans). Evans claims that, during this time, McQueen had a “fascination with the dynamics of power” especially between “predator and prey” (153). For his 1997 collection entitled “It’s a Jungle Out There”, models perfectly depicted the Thomson’s gazelle, a deer-like animal with long horns, dark eyes and white, black and tan markings on the side (Evans: 153). The gazelle was most likely chosen as a main theme because is known to be low on Africa’s food chain. McQueen correlates the animal’s circumstance to that of a designer saying, “we can all be quite easily discarded”, a fact which was particularly true during the nineties and even more so now (Evans: 153). McQueen’s subject matter only seems to get more outrageous with his recent collections. Though McQueen may choose popular subject manner for his collections, his clothing has never appeared to heed to specific consumer demands, a fact which may contribute to his appeal. Part of the reason for his popularity is that his work is as much about the presentation and performance of the show as it is about the clothes. McQueen was one of the first to use extreme measures to make his fashion shows as erotic and exciting as the clothing. His creativity and showmanship never seizes to have critics raving, whether good or bad reviews. His recent collections have the skill in precision to back up his outrageous theatrics as well. Alexander McQueen proves the age old theory that fashion is not just about what you put on your body; it is a movement, a form of art that draws from life and should have meaning. McQueen’s work has that lively quality to it; he gives his audience not just a collection of pieces that each have a story, but a style that makes going to his shows an experience all its own.

Information Cited From:
Agins, Teri. The End of Fashion. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999
Entwistle, Joanne and Elizabeth Wilson. Body Dressing. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001
Evans, Caroline. Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Hodge, Brook. Skin and Bones. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2006 (pictures)
“McQueen strikes a blow for late editor”. The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 Oct 2007. SMH.com.au. Google. San Diego Mesa College Lib. 8 March 2008
Socha, Miles. “The Real McQueen”. Women’s Wear Daily. Volume 191. Issue 69 (2006): 92-94. EBSCOhost.San Diego Mesa College Lib. 4 March 2008 http://www.ebscohost.com
The Fashion Book. New York: Phaidon Press, 1998
“Tres Sportif and Ultra-Glam”. Women’s Wear Daily Volume 194. Issue 74 (2007): 6-7. EBSCOhost. San Diego Mesa College Lib. 9 March 2008 http://www.ebscohost.com
Watson, Linda. 20th Century Fashion. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2004

People are Talking About

A new favorite of mine comes from the Montreal/Birmingham area of London. At 28, Erdem Moralioglu not only has a mouthful of a name, he has a head-full of ideas! After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, he worked for Diane von Furstenberg before starting his own line, Erdem. Though Moralioglu has proved himself as a young visionary, winning the Fashion Fringe Award for 100,000 pounds, on any given day you can find him walking from his home in Hackney in a pair of Vans, Club Monaco jeans of all things, and a t-shirt. Then again, what designer really wastes time dressing themselves, as indicated by top designer Michael Kors, who was criticized for wearing nothing more than a black t-shirt and jeans on last night's Project Runway episode. Erdem is definitely saving himself for the runway.
Erdem's "blurry" designs on flowing dresses appeared to be "like a landscape speeding past when you're on a train." Although, I feel some of the collection had a mystical, dark, cartoonish "under the sea" theme, such as a yellow strapless silk gown that appears to have a crowd of prints crawling up the dress, almost as if it is ready to pounce on the girl at any moment. Whatever the interpretation of the prints, the silhouettes were magnificent. Several pieces stood out from the collection including a simple double-breasted coat-dress that had an element of surprise in its' floral lapels toward the bottom, or a strapless deep purple dress with several pleated layers causing a ruffly flow that was petticoat-ish, but appeared much more comfortable. Both pieces were entirely marketable and creative which is not easy to come by, especially in a younger designer.


Information Cited from:
Telegraph.co.uk- Interview with Moralioglu and Naomi West
Style.com- Runway Review: Erdem by Sarah Mower