First it’s New York, Paris, London, Milan, and last but not least–Los Angeles. That’s right: L.A. added a bit of Hollywood red carpet style to the end of the 2008 Spring/Summer collections for L.A. Fashion Week (photos). And despite the pressure L.A. has always felt going against the constant comparisons to its east coast counterpart, New York Fashion Week, the Big Apple has nothing on the City of Angels. As Hollywood.com found out, celebs agree that this week-long fashion show blitz brings out the true glitz and glamour of fashion.
The ‘Duke’ Has His L.A. Premiere
On opening night of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City hundreds of the fashion savvy, including press, stylists, buyers, celebrities, and VIP fashionistas lined up to witness the first couture runway show in Los Angeles ever presented by famed designer Randolph Duke. It was a standing-room only crowd inside the main tent, with the seats packed with top tier press and fashion influentials.
Duke presented “Fade To Green,” a collection of 73 pieces to make up his Spring 2008 Couture Collection. “With a heightened consciousness of ‘going green’ my inspiration revealed itself trough the natural beauty of California,” said the former Halston designer. “I have always tried to find ways to interpret elements of nature in my work, however subtle or abstracted at times. What better time than now to devote an entire collection to that which is most precious–the living earth!”
The show began with a tableau of beautifully positioned models on white platforms. Metallic tulle veiled ivory silk separates led the way in crisp shimmering pleated shapes echoing golden sunlit palm fronds. Black cocktail dresses, suits and gowns took a decidedly softer approach with free form floral shapes using refined pearl trims and delicate palette embroidery. Black and ivory and black silk plissé was delicately beaded in natural fern, sprig and palmetto shapes and veiled over pavé beaded gowns evoking morning dew. Calidora palm prints were veiled with transparent tissue silk layers like shaded foliage, or conversely layered over metallic foiled jerseys creating an earthy sun dappled glow.
[IMG:R]Nip/Tuck’s Kelly Carlson, The Hills’ Whitney Port and Dirty Sexy Money’s Natalie Zea sat in the front row and jumped to their feet for a standing ovation as the designer came out to take his bow (Duke was even moved to tears by the roar of support). And the party continued as Duke hosted a private after-party at his home in the Hollywood Hills to celebrate his new collection. Moet & Chandon hosted a pre-show reception for Randolph Duke VIP guests and created a signature Champagne bottle in the designer’s honor. Now that’s what we call VIP treatment! [PAGEBREAK]‘Free’ Your Mind
Fashion met rock and roll with celebs like Tommy Lee and Cisco Adler who rocked the house at the 2 B Free fashion show during Mercedes-Benz L.A. Fashion Week. Hollywood hot spot Blvd. 3 was transformed into a runway fantasy complete with young Hollywood A-listers and a bevy of model beauties.
Looking incognito with a hat covering his face, infamous Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee skipped the red carpet and headed inside the venue where he and his manager took over a table to get a front row view. Now why was Tommy there? The obvious answer is the scantily clad models strutting down the catwalk, but there was one in particular that caught his eye. Hollywood.com saw Tommy backstage after the show to greet his on-again, off-again model girlfriend Erin Nass, who walked in the show.
Another model–at least for the night–was reality TV’s newest girl next door, Kim Kardashian, who tagged alongside her sisters and Keeping Up with the Kardashians co-stars Kourtney and Khloe, who sat front row cheering their sis on. “I know the guys from 2 B Free and they asked me to walk in it,” Kim told Hollywood.com. “I love them, I love the sweats. They’re very, very like hip, cool sweats.”
To prepare for her 2 B Free debut, Kim even got advice from a few supermodel friends of her own. “I’ve gotten advice from everyone, from Kimora Lee Simmons to Tyson Beckford, all the best models in the world. One of them told me not to put my hands on my hips, the other one told me to put my hands on my hips. So I don’t know whose advice to listen to. I’m just going to have a good time,” she said.
And that she did, bringing the audience to its feet with roars of applause. But it didn’t come without a few nerves and what could have been fashion disaster. After the show, Kim confessed the show almost didn’t go off without a hitch.
“Gitters are gone, so now I can like relax. I was so nervous. The sweatpants we didn’t get fitted because I came so late. They were so long, down to the floor, and they’re really for tall, skinny girls,” she said. “So I was like freaking out. I thought, ‘Oh no, they’re going to think I’m a retard because I’m like tripping all over the place.’ I felt like I was tripping all over the sweats.”
L.A. Fashion Week may not be quite as highly regarded as New York’s, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun and filled with familiar faces. And Entourage’s Rex Lee admits that he too gets star-struck. “I think that’s a really good sort of selling point for me is that it is so Hollywood. Probably in the power offices of fashion, L.A. probably isn’t taken as seriously as New York, Paris or Milan, but it’s fun–the spectacle of it, the Hollywood of it. You go and see random celebrities. I think we have fun in L.A.,” he said.
[IMG:R]Olympic ice skater Sasha Cohen showed up dressed in skinny jeans and a “fun” and “comfy” leopard print blouse. “I got it and I was like, ‘This is great,’ because I can stick out my stomach and no one can see. So it’s fantastic,” she said.
A true fashion lover, Sasha is no stranger to designing herself. She designs all her own skating costumes. Off the ice, though, she leaves the designing to Cedric Benaroch, the designer behind 2 B Free, and wears the “cute and stylish” sweatpants when she’s training on the ice.
“It’s all about the prints, the artwork and the dresses evolving to where we are today,” Cedric told Hollywood.com. “We see a lot of the market saturated with a lot of the same thing, so we’re always trying to evolve and just grow. We like to set trends and people kind of follow after us.” [PAGEBREAK]Coco Couture
Having never showed at L.A. Fashion Week before, designer Coco Johnsen may be newcomer, but her history on the fashion scene is anything but. A former model and New York resident for 20 years, she knows a thing or two about the fashion business, and as a guest during last year’s shows in L.A., Coco wanted to get a first-hand look at how the City of Angels caters to its fashion clientele and was pleasantly surprised.
“I’m really happy to be a part of it,” Coco told Hollywood.com. “It’s forward-thinking. It’s moving forward. A lot of great designers are coming out of California. So this a great chance and opportunity for me to show the Coco Johnsen line and to show what I have to offer the women out there–the Coco Johnsen woman.”
So who is a Coco Johnsen woman, you ask? The sexy, strong, working woman, says Coco: “Very powerful, but very delicate. The fabrics that I use are very delicate fabrics–chiffon, silk. We have capri shorts. We have a very clean lined and cut suit, very tailored to the body,” she said. “We used a lot of belts to accentuate the curve of a woman’s figure. I’m using a lot of colors. There’s a full color burst of pink, a powdered pink, a cream, some cobalt blues, grays with cutouts and pieces of pink sticking through and some French lace.”
And who are those, sexy, strong, working women? None other than the ladies of Wisteria Lane. Nicollette Sheridan, who saw a couple of Coco’s pieces recently and wanted to use them for a photo shoot, and Eva Longoria Parker. Coco notes that especially during award season, her gowns fly off the racks. Coco calls Nicollette “a gown woman.”
“She loves gowns… She loves a good gown. Eva Longoria loves a good baby-doll dress,” Coco says of her celeb clients. “I do things that are going to accentuate a woman and make her feel and look beautiful. So when I’m designing for a particular woman, especially a celebrity, I’m asking her what colors it is that she likes, what they feel comfortable in, what makes them feel pretty. I then design with that in mind.”
[IMG:R]And Nicollette and Eva are in luck–Coco’s new line has at least 62 red carpet-ready gowns this season for women to choose from. But those Desperate Housewives aren’t Coco’s only celeb fans. Sexy Transformers beauty Megan Fox sat front and center during the runway show.
Coco said there’s more than a hint of Hollywood glamour in her collection. “I have a beautiful dress in this collection that was inspired by Audrey Hepburn… There are definitely some things here that are very Natalie Wood. The length of my skirts this season are below the knee, pencil skirts and the women have to sort of wiggle down the runway. That sexiness is in there and will always be a staple in my collection, always.” [PAGEBREAK]Good Fashion Taste
Jamie and Dana Finegold, the trendy designers behind Tart, one of L.A.’s hottest brands, heated up the runway during Fashion Week with their new Spring 2008 collection, and before the models strutted down the catwalk showing off the slinky and sexy new Tart dresses, Hollywood.com caught up with the husband and wife creative team backstage where they confessed it’s really Jamie with the sense of style.
“He dresses me,” Dana laughed. “When we go shopping, he grabs the salesgirl and they go to town. I really married the best shopping partner ever,” she grinned.
Tart is known for their comfortable flattering fit yet cutting edge style and the new collection is no different. “For this line, we have some of the traditional staples like black is always phenomenal and white is always good because we have such a big following in L.A. and Miami. Prints have always been really important for us. Prints have been coming on stronger and stronger so it’s nice for us to break up the sea of solids that we’ve always done,” Jamie said.
“You’re going to see a lot of spring colors which is really nice. It’s going to be light and happy and will make you want to go outside,” his wife added.
Tart fan Stacy Keibler couldn’t wait to see the new designs and who of course was wearing a fabulous floor length deep purple Tart gown. “I just love it because I can wear flats with it during the day or I can out some bangles on and heels to wear it out at night. It’s very versatile which I feel like most of their clothes can be,” Keibler told Hollywood.com.
[IMG:R]L.A. Fashion Week has so many different events and celebs definitely have their choice of what shows they want to see, but Keibler remains loyal to her favorite designer. “In my closest, I have the most of Tart. They have great basic things to have so I have to come to Tart every year because I’m a big supporter and I have lots of their clothes.”
Other celebrity fans include Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra and Sandra Oh, but you don’t have to be a star to wear the sultry dresses. “We’ve got people who want to show everything and people who want to look sexy, but at the same time don’t want the world to see their goods,” Jamie said. “[Tart is for] the ultra sexy south beach girl to the soccer mom.” To check out the new line, visit Tart Collections.[PAGEBREAK]‘Lotta’ Fashion, So Little Time
Entourage beauty Emmanuelle Chriqui is lucky enough to wear some of the most stylish clothes on television, and in hip L.A., she’s got a lot to keep up with. To help her ever-morphing fashion sense, Emmanuelle went to two L.A. Fashion shows at Smashbox Studios in Culver City to support her “two ladies”–Lotta Stensson and Petro Zillia. Her closet–on and off the show–is full of their designs.
“Lotta, I have been wearing her for years and there’s something really playful, almost fairylike, about her clothing. Like it’s very romantic and sexy and kind of like you walk into a different place when you walk into her boutique. It’s awesome,” Emmanuelle told Hollywood.com. “And Petro Zillia, she’s just like incredibly funky and sometimes really, really tailored. It’s just if you want to do something different, you’re for sure going to find something there.”
Emmanuelle’s even taken their designs to the best runway in the world–onto the hit HBO show itself. In fact, when her character was introduced on the show she was wearing a Lotta dress. Talk about a true fashion fan!
And Emmanuelle wasn’t the only L.A. girl to represent the funky L.A.-based label, Petro Zillia, during the runway show. The ultimate L.A. girl, Paris Hilton, grabbed a front row seat. After all, the show was appropriately called “So L.A.” Paris came arm-in-arm with the label’s designer, pink-haired Nony Tochterman, and wore a Petro Zillia midnight blue satin jumpsuit. Having been shooting in Toronto for two months, Paris had missed her sister Nicky‘s Chick collection earlier in the week.
[IMG:R]After a two-year absence from L.A.’s catwalk, the Petro Zillia line showcased silk ruffled coral and red dresses, off-the-shoulder sheer gowns in orange silk and hot pink chiffon, silk and satin bright yellow and fuchsia jumpers, and a see-through black dress with gold-edged flowers–all perfect for the fresh-faced starlet. The standout was a floor-length teal wrap dress accented with folds of chiffon that was greeted with cheers and applause.
Designers including Sue Wong, Christian Audigier, Kevan Hall, Jeremy Scott, Heatherette and Monarchy Collection also presented their looks during L.A. Fashion Week’s 34 shows.
–Additional reporting by Heather Newgen and Scott Huver
