Pure, Unadulterated Joy

Let them eat cake!

Okay, I'm going to try and wrap this up tonight for those faithful enough to keep reading. HA!

In any case, back to my conversation with my stylist friend. According to her, which I tend to agree, in LA, the order of importance is: 1. Celebrity 2. Parties 3. Designs. She commented on the fact that all last week there was free alcohol poured the entire time and in New York - it's coffee.

However, not to rag too much on poor party-driven LA Fashion Week, we do love that aspect of it just as much and maybe more so than some of the fashion! Where else in LA do you have the opportunity to see the same people almost every day for seven days (and nights) straight. The Emmy's - one day/night. The Oscars - one night. The SAG Awards - one night. And on and on.

LA Fashion Week you never know who you're going to bump into next, or who you'll meet. It might be a designer a photographer, a makeup artist, a model, an actor/actress, a stylist, and the list goes on. Then, by the time the week is up they're your new best friends who you, for the most part, won't see until the next fashion week and then bang, you're all best friends again! (Like here's some new friends I made this time out - Lisa, stylist, Deborah, makeup artist, Brett, model, and me, publicist/writer.)

That happened with a hairstylist friend of mine. I met him through a makeup artist friend downtown at a fashion show on the roof of the Standard. He didn't like her always bugging him for work, but he liked the fact I write. Secretly, he would invite me (without her) to see his hair designs at Louis Verdad which lead to other invitations by other friends and soon I was caught up in the flurry surrounding it as well.

For those of you wondering why I'm at home on a Friday night blogging rather than partying I'll have you know that I went out last night and hit the Final Draft party which was interesting, especially when the busloads of 20 year-olds fresh off the bus from USC started pouring into the nightclub at 10pm. It was a riot to see the writers who'd won awards and were dressed in suits (yes, they were all men - fuckers - probably nice, but where's the female representation?) and then all the Halloween happy college kids dancing and cavorting. We, Steven, Shana and I, had a blast carrying on and reliving our distant youth. Too funny.

All that to say, tonight all I wanted was dinner and a movie with a good friend. I guess I'm still hooked on fashion though because we saw Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola's movie. I don't know if the theater screened the film out of focus, or the real film is fuzzy, but it was difficult to watch after awhile. Plus, her pacing is so slow. However, the fashions and settings were stunning. I was curious to see her  filmmaking style because of the success of her last film, Lost in Translation. Curiosity is satiated. How do you like my new hair? Got it cut at Hush Hush last Monday night and then colored it myself. I like it so much better!

Okay, back to fashion.  Earlier this week I read LA  Weekly bloggers opinion of the fashions and felt a little intimidated, but after speaking to my stylist friend who works on both coasts and who spoke to her high-profile stylist friends, I feel like my opinions, although different than catty LA Weekly girls, do carry merit. For example, the Metro 7 show, which Wal-Mart produced we all thought was very well done. The LA Weekly people looked down their noses on it strictly because it was Wal-Mart. That's what I love about fashionistas. It's not about politics honey - it's about the clothes and the fashion!

We both thought it was very well done. Here's some pix I took, since my photographer opted out for political reasons as well, which show some of my stylist friends and others checking out the fashions. Speaking of professionals, I wonder how many buyers actually come out to these shows too. It seems like more regular people are there and it's a real scene, versus a business.

However, who says we have to be just like NY? That said, it would still be nice to see some menswear fashion shown. Where's all the amazing male designers in LA? I'm ready to see some hot guys stride down the runway wearing suits. Love that look! I'm sure there's men's sportswear lines that would benefit from showcasing. I'll work on that and get back to you. HA!
Back to the Metro 7 show. Very cleverly, during the time models were changing, they would screen some highlights from the Fashion TV show that Morgan Fairchild (who was in the front row along with numerous other cast members) stars in beside Bo Derek. It was hilarious some of the campy clips screened of Bo & Morgan cat fighting. In any case, Danny, the guy in the pink, loved the eyewear and the simplicity of the lines.

Apparently, he's one of the bigger stylists who attended and we bonded over sitting behind Diana Ross at the Meghan Fabulous show. Tee Hee. Gotta admit, if you're going to gossip about a celebrity, why not one of the biggest stars? I will repeat, she was absolutely adorable. She was there to cheer on her daughter and was so cute to see her get so excited. Her daughter was ok, but looked extremely nervous. Work it baby!

Back to more shows. Let's see, I've told you about Louis Verdad, Meghan Fabulous, Metro 7. Oh yeah, Kush Cush. This show I wasn't planning on attending, but because my client showed up late and missed Metro 7, I had to schmooze him into this one. I was glad he did because he was given front row seats along with his 10 year old rap prodigy, Lil' Ace.

There they are. Damien rarely smiles. That hat never comes off. He keeps promising to make my 7 year old neice one because she's such a hat girl. I had her tell him in her little voice that she really wants her hat. It's been almost a year since he promised it to her and I'm going to see that she gets it. He gets 'em specially made of mink and he has a pink one too. He has relatives who work in politics and he even has a picture of himself wearing his hat with President Bush and his uncle. Too funny - especially when he's so polar opposite of Bush.

Anyway, the bathing suits were very feminine with ruffles. Really cute. There's more samples in my LA Fashion Week photo album. The final night I went to see Kevan Hall's show. Now that was a show! Like I've said before, Jody Whatley opened by singing one of her remixes of Aquarious. That was a treat and she truly looked like a diva that night. His designs are truly amazing.

If/when I book a female client, I'm going to see if she can borrow some of the designs for red carpet appearances. He used to design for Halston and the clean line influence are evident in his creations. He is vastly theatrical and his show was a wonderful way to end Fashion Week for me.   Sit back and enjoy the view from Felle's perspective.

I'll post more once I find the missing emails the publicist sent me. I'm so bummed because this in no way represents all his designs - there were so many other variations I'm dying to show you! However, aren't they nice? But enough about fashion for awhile ok?

I think I have some male readers and I'm sure they're breathing a heavy sigh of relief.  Just check out my LA Fashion Week photo album for uploaded pix when I find it ok? Have a good night and safe Halloween! See ya!                     

LA Fashion Week wrap-up

Just read the Daily Mini and realized one of the major differences between LA Fashion Week and any of the other Fashion Weeks around the world is that we don't have celebrity models in LA, other than one or two who are really known only in LA like Lesa Amoore and Caroline D'Amore.

The other difference I noticed is that we also don't have big fashion magazine editors critiquing everything out here. Maybe they're around, but they're not the celebrities they are in NY and elsewhere. I did see the Access Hollywood Producer at every show I attended, but no one made a big deal over her which is how I think she likes it. Maybe CA is more TV/Celebrity-oriented at our fashion shows and the designs are just background - I don't know.

The main people who get interviewed or talked about are the Smashbox brothers and they're the ones who host the shows at their studio so they better get some recognition out of it. Their makeup is given away in the goody bags, there's an area set aside for people to get made up using their products and it could be seen as a bigger publicity push for them with the designers seen as secondary. I don't know for sure because I'm not in the inner circle, but according to one photographer (who I know from numerous other red carpet events) this year there wasn't as many big celebrities in attendance, the crowds were smaller and even the designers were limited. Like I said, I'm not an industry insider on fashion, but I believe him.

However, the shows that I did attend, Louis Verdad, Meghan Fabulous, Kevan Hall, KushCush, Junker Designs, and Metro 7 were all well-attended. I don't know who all was there, but all the seats were filled! The bank of photographers seemed as robust as ever and the only issue I heard raised by another photographer was regarding the lighting during the Kevan Hall show.

Apparently, the show producer was so interested in making it exciting, he forgot that photographers need the spotlight to remain on the models for a period of time in order to give them time to shoot good pictures. The show producer also kept changing the colors of the spotlight which gave the crowd a very interesting affect from our perspective, but ran havoc with photographers who didn't have the time to adjust their settings to accomodate the change in lighting for each model. I told the publicist and hopefully she'll pass it along.

Back to the other shows... Meghan Fabulous designs were over the top and amazing. Lots of ethnic inspiration, lots of color, lots of long gowns with unique shell decorations, beading, and large, candy-like necklaces. Her show's theme was the No-Tell Motel and it began with the invitation. Enclosed was a typical motel gold key with the words, No Tel Motel on one side and Do Not Disturb on the other. This carried through with the passes given upon check-in. You were handed Do Not Disturb hanging tags with the words No Tel Motel on the other side again.

Bare-chested male models wearing only motel like jackets, little pill box hats and trimmed pants handled large luggage carts at the opening of the show. Caroline D'Amore always draws applause just because she's a "celebrity" and is our only recognizable model due to her odd gait and flamboyant modeling. Last I heard they were doing either a reality or documentary on her life. Could be interesting.

  Felle, who shot some of the good pix, only sent me images with African American women in them so some of the choices are limited, but at least I'm giving a shout out to those who did model. That's one thing I observed with another publicist friend...  there wasn't much diversity in some of these shows. I don't know if the bookers aren't sending them out to the designers, the designers aren't selecting them, but it was rather sad to see how white the models were for the most part. California of all places is so much more diverse than caucasion. Plus, some of the clothes look more beautiful against black skin. Maybe the buyers are all white, I don't know that either. In any case, here's some shots from Meghan Fabulous's show courtesy of Felle.

Having trouble uploading. Will finish later...

Okay, I'm back. The next show I hit was the Louis Verdad show. His designs are feminine also, but in a tailored way. He also was very subdued in his choice of colors. I like how sophisticated and genteel his designs always are. Just got off the phone with one of my stylist friends and she gave me the lowdown on backstage gossip for this show. Apparently, unlike New York, LA doesn't have one person coordinating all the dressers backstage which sometimes causes havoc in a show. This week had models coming out with clothes on backwards (which my stylist friend blames on the models because they've actually worn them once properly); shoes that didn't fit; tags hanging out; hanger ribbons hanging out, etc, etc, etc. Oy vey!  However, to the untrained eye, it all looked fabulous from where I was sitting.