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“You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.” — Edith Head

Last week the LA fashion scene was hit by a storm, and that storm was LA Fashion Week Spring/Summer ’18. This season was most ambitious and lavish one to date, featuring a robust lineup of 16 designers, all showcasing their most current concepts and collections. Ground Zero for the activities of this fashion storm occurred in the historic Alexandria Ballrooms in Down Town LA, which is a distinctly historic LA venue.

The aim for LA Fashion Week is to set itself apart by focusing on Los Angeles based design talent, by promoting and highlighting the local design community which gives the event a very distinct home-grown vibe. The emphasis this season was on celebrating the cultural diversity that we sometimes take for granted in LA.

The storm was a 5 day affair, with a grand opening ceremony featuring several performances from a rock show, a performance by the Anaheim Ballet, and a Thai dance group performance to set the tone. The open spaces of the venue where transformed by art pieces from local artists, allowing attendees to get a taste of the LA art scene, as well as a full blown “make-over station” setup by KISS Professional, NY.

The shows on the runway this season featured some very exciting themes, as many of the designers utilized very traditional cultural elements in their designs mixed with bold colors and intricate patterns. For example, George Styler made use of traditional Asian styles in his design work, with a splash of fantasy elements thrown in to give his collection a very unique and larger than life feel. The most unique and show-stealing moment at of any of the shows had to come from designer Issue Thailand, who featured not 1 but 2 “invisible people” to model outfits for his latest collection. A creatively delightful surprise, it certainly was the talk of the week at the event. The full line up of designers presenting was:
Noe Bernacelli

The fashion is never limited to just the runways, as the attendee presented a plethora of diverse fashion ensembles and statements. Throughout the non-stop fashion activity at the event, Executive Producer Arthur Chipman could be spied ensuring that everything was executed smoothly and seemingly effortlessly. It’s always a sight to behold to see a show runner in full action making sure every minute detail is executed each day, and for a 5 day stretch makes it that much more impressive to see. That same dive and passion is shared by the rest of the LA Fashion Week team, particularly the Beauty Director Marquita Davis, who could be seen ensuring that anything and everything needed for a show, designer, or guest was taken care of immediately, no matter how big or small. That’s magic of their hard work that deserves appreciation and recognition, especially since Chipman, Davis and the LA Fashion Week team do a great job of managing the monumental amount of behind the scenes chaos and logistics to help create a special event for everyone to enjoy, while making it seem as if the entire process is as simple as flipping a switch.

All in all, LA Fashion Week SS’18 has been the biggest and boldest LA Fashion Week to date. The vision and execution makes it a world-class event, and does its home city of Los Angeles a great service by elevating the fashion profile of the city. The event has certainly grown over the last few years to become one of the premier fashion events in the world and the future of this event looks very, very grand. Rest assured there will be great anticipation and many eyes waiting to see what the LA Fashion Week team has in store for next season.