LA Fashion Week Visibility and Opportunity for Established (and Emerging) Designers

Each of the major fashion capitals, New York, London, Milan and Paris, will showcase their native assortment of men and women's designer collections for the upcoming Spring/Summer23 season. It is easy for less established brands and younger designers to get lost in the mix with Fashion Week taking place twice a year.

Along with the bonus of headline-grabbing moments and backstage shenanigans, the fashion pack will usually attend a well-known or prestigious fashion show, knowing that the expectation for stellar product delivery will usually be met. Smaller brands are vying for attention and can even find more established brands looking for something new and exciting to keep their creativity alive.

The spirit of independent designers, sustainable living and "seasonless" collections are what Los Angeles Fashion Week celebrates. LAFW had been a small-scale, once-thriving fashion show operation, but is now under new management and is on the verge of becoming a beacon of top-tier runway productions and brand activations that are comparable to New York,

The new LA Fashion Week program boasted designer collections shown by Public School students, as well as by other designers. Although not part of the official LA Fashion Week programming, several brands hosted events after the LAFW lineup was released.

Ciarra Pardo, Imad Izemrane, Marcus Ticotin and Keith Abell formed N4XT, which means "Next". The current president of the event shared her thoughts on why the west coast deserves a share of the fashion month spotlight. LAFW is a way of bringing our collective career experiences to the table to help support the next generation of industry creatives. 

With the growth and renaissance of Los Angeles, there is an opportunity for us to build something special and solid, even though we could never compete with the legacy of other fashion capitals. It makes sense to add our mark to what happens around the world in fashion.

Throughout my travels and network, I have seen where the lack of creativity and production can be mitigated. There is a chance to do that with LA Fashion Week. A free space for brands and designers to get creative has been created by Pardo and her partners.

Mr. Lauren moved his show from New York to California for the first time. He said that California has always been a land of dreams and contradictions. The West Coast has always been an inspiration to me.

Lauren says that she brings her dream of living here, sharing her worlds in an experience that celebrates a way of life she has always believed in. With over 100 garments for men, women and kids, it looks like his dream is complete.

The brand chose San Marino in Pasadena as the location for this year's fashion show. It took California by storm with a full range of the legendary designer's brands, including Polo, Double RL, Purple Label, and his eponymous Collection for both men and women.

Lauren opened his show with a mix of textured denim, aged leather, 10-gallon hats and cowboy boots as a nod to California's western style of dress. The second half of the show was devoted to the brand's purple label and collection, which featured gold, tan, white and neutral colors. The finale of the show centered on the Polo line of merchandise for the family, which included colorful chinos, Polo shirts, madras print shorts, technical jackets with the "Polo" logo and branded footwear.

The Public School co- founder showed half of his collection in New York and the other half in California during Fashion Month.

It feels right to show in LA because we are always here and we have a lot of dead stock here. The rest of the collection has been shown in New York and now in Los Angeles. It makes sense since we are always in LA.

The collection included original designs of velvet half-Zip pullovers, multi-pocket cargo pants, bell-sleeved crop tops for women, and ruffled gowns, all made from dead stock materials.

Albeit rough and deteriorated in presentation, each shoe is crafted from luxe materials, and its vibe of un assumed luxury has caught on with LA's streetwear scene.

The brand held a skate-meets-fashion takeover event at the Pink Motel to celebrate LA culture and honor its west coast fan base.

White napa leather, grey suede inserts, and aged cream-colored laces make up the sneaker. 

Making a return to the runway, Uribe celebrated Chicano culture by featuring male and female models of all shapes and sizes, and highlighting garments that were a hybrid of LA street style mixed with Latinx inclusion.

There were blue and dark blue denim, flannel-style plaids in red, cream and white, along with red sleek satins and crepe whites with the "GS" planetary logo on them. There were several pairs of Nike Air Max sneakers in cranberry red and white that were featured in the collection.

Woodie White started his LA-based Oyster label in 2012 to highlight comfort, style, fit and a focus on travel wear. The brand caught the attention of renowned skaters, bikers and stylish celebs and has partnerships with Nike and adidas.

The brand responded to an invitation from award-winning actress Issa Rae to be a part of her Emerging Designers runway showcase and presented a casual luxe collection that featured men's suit separates.

White doesn't like to look at any of this as a race to the finish. The brand's DNA has always been my focus. The clothing concept is global. Traveling is a sport, so we make sportswear for it.

The cool factor from New York to LA Fashion Week was brought to the forefront by the Ember Niche eyewear label.

They were inspired by the Hollywood lifestyle along with their world travels for business. The brand has named their frames after trips they have taken, such as the "Flamingo" shades and "Seafoam" shades, which are named after trips they have taken.