News Coverage:

City of Angels' Fashion Shows Lack New York's Depth or Paris' Polish, but Show Sparks of Brilliance
By Elizabeth Snead

LOS ANGELES, Nov 4, 2001/ --- Tinseltown has long wanted a bite of the Big Apple's fashion biz. And if Friday's slick, sophisticated presentation of six Los Angeles fashion designers is any indication, they may just get a nibble of New York's clout.

"Audi Presents Designer Collections of Los Angeles Fashion Week," organized by SPR, a publicity and promotions firm headed by Margaret Schell and Sara Stein, kicked off L.A.'s market week at the Tibitz Creative Stages, a vintage building in Hollywood.

The space was transformed into a space-age, all white, airport-lounge-like area with an outdoors coffee shop, a salad bar, a Mexican food stall and small round dining tables scattered about, leaving plenty of room for the 300-odd press, stylists, fans and buyers to network, mingle, smoke and snack.

The L.A. designers who presented their wares in the back-to-back shows (from noon to 6) included David Cardona, Tree, Cornell Collins, Jared Gold, Eduardo Lucero and Petro Zillia.

But what would a big fashion extravaganza be without sponsors? Audi parked a couple of their cool cars around for folks to swoon over. JetBlue Airways pushed their travel services with a section of airplane seats, complete with video monitors, for all to test ride. Sebastian, whose makeup and hair experts did the looks for all the shows, filled goody bags with Laminates shampoo and conditioner and Trucco lip and cheek glosses.

Lending a surreal East Coast vibe to the event was the appearance of 7th on Sixth's Fern Mallis, who had flown in especially to look at the La-La Land presentation.

"We are definitely looking at coming out here and getting involved," says Mallis. "IMG has lots of interests in things like this in Japan and India, and Los Angeles is looking very promising."

Naturally, Hollywood's top stylists were there, including Vincent Boucher, who dressed Kim Cattrall for Sunday's Emmys, and Jessica Pastor, who raved about Petro Zillia and Lucero's shows.

There was even a smattering of star power. The omnipresent socialite Paris Hilton signed autographs for fans in between modeling for Lucero and Cardona's shows, in the latter of which she was wearing a long black leather garter skirt and bondage top.

Suzanne Somers showed up in a skin-tight red leather skirt and matching jacket. A smiling Garcelle Beauvais stuck around for the first two shows, while Kelly Lynch, looking toned and trim, and Anjelica Huston, wearing an elegant black pantsuit, showed up to support their favorite designer, Cardona, who showed last to a standing-room crowd.

Is the impressive turnout indicative of a change in the L.A. fashion climate?

"I hope so," says Collins. "I don't think SPR would be able to pull this off, with this kind of corporate sponsorship, if there were not an ample amount of interest in the L.A. fashion scene. And what they have done is really amazing. Fashion isn't something that companies like Audi are generally all that aware of, so it's no small feat to get them interested."

What about the clothes, you ask? Well, you can't have everything. But at least it wasn't Halter Top, U.S.A.

Jared Gold kicked off the day with a collection of kitschy cotton and linen separates with amusing appliqués of Victorian ladies, owls, utensils and lamps.

Standouts from Lucero's Latin-flavored elegance included a sophisticated yet sexy three-piece cream corset suit, a pleated navy strapless leather top with a draped organza skirt, and a blue lace blouse with a taffeta, trained ball gown.

Tree came off a bit Ghost-y with a vintage bent: sheer, flowing governess blouses, antique lace blousons and peasant shirts over to-the-knee gauze skirts, and bias-cut vintage-print dresses - all worn with knee-high fishnets in black, white and neutral.

Cardona's hard-edged futuristic eveningwear featured black leather one-shouldered long gowns, wrap tops, dominatrix-style crop leather tops with back cutouts, slashed skirts and bondage bandeau tops. Imagine Helmut Newton meets Barbarella. Best of show: crinkled leather, silk and suede skirts, and his signature low-rise leather flares - particularly the pair topped with a silk frockcoat with floor-dragging tails. Talk about making a grand exit!

Collins's collection was inspired by the "Little House on the Prairie" character Nellie Oleson, and featured elegant but disheveled Victorian taffeta and tulle gowns, linen prayer jackets, pleated poplin skirts and silk chiffon tanks, all in washed out hues of blue, ivory, oyster and ecru.

But the glaring goof of the day was the neon pink, green, orange and yellow feathers, ricrac and yarn hanging off all of Petro Zillia's brightly colored tube tops, Capri pants and denim halter tops. The absolute low point was when the houselights went off and all the Day Glo-duded models boogied under a black light to techno tunes. For an event designed to elevate L.A.'s fashion image, this bit was just stark ravin' bad.

Click on links to view the runway shows for Los Angeles Fashion Week Spring 2002