Los Angeles Fashion Week is Back, Riding West Coast Fashion Moments
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Los Angeles Fashion Week takes place October 6-9 with a new line-up to attract fashion brands and designers to the traditionally commercial-focused event.
Organizers will focus on four pillars of fashion, beauty, technology and sustainability rather than on a specific season, opening up new modes of presentation beyond traditional runway shows to ‘do things differently’. That’s what we’re aiming for, said LAFW President Ciarra Pardo.
LA labels such as Rodarte, Gypsy Sport and Sami Miro Vintage will be exhibiting, but the majority of brands attending the event are not based in LA. New York’s Anonlychild joins the line-up, along with international brands Demobaza and Chris Nick. trend Philippines covered. Fleur du Mal celebrates her 10th anniversary. And it will be the 40th time with a video of a brand that has never been seen before. Denim brands Levi’s and Revise Denim also exhibited.
Most attendees haven’t shown up elsewhere for Fashion Month, but Anonlychild is the second. After a show in New York, the brand brings a tweaked version to the West Coast.Designer Maxwell Osborne was drawn to LAFW’s newness. He says he’s been traveling to Los Angeles a lot lately to source deadstock, so the opportunity to do a show in the city and tell the story of the brand’s materials felt natural, he says.
It was also an opportunity to reject so-called rules. He asks, pointing out that Anonlychild may not appear in his February following LAFW. “We’re not going to be bound by rules or seasons.” Or places. Showing the collection in LA, too, says Osborne, is his way of waving the flag and saying, “Why?”
One LA-based brand to watch is Gypsy Sport. In 2019, designer Rio Uribe returned to his LA after 15 years in New York and had a show at his LAFW last year. When he returned to the event (rather than doing something in his time like he’d done in the past for NYFW instead), LAFW felt “fresh and new, so he decided to attend.” I did it,” he says.
Part of this newness is the immersive technology element of LAFW. Pardo said the Lighthouse venue has about 200 projectors, which many exhibiting designers use to add a digital or immersive element to their shows. Gypsy Sports, for example, uses this technology to celebrate Latino and Chicano culture by immersing audiences in what Uribe calls the “universe” of Gypsy Sports.