Lady LUX

Last month, Concept LA celebrated its second season during Los Angeles Fashion Week. Designers such as Mila Hermanovski (of “Project Runway” fame), ISM Mode, and former Rihanna costumer Angel Johnson, showed off their designs for Spring 2011. Pioneered by fashion designer Mike Vensel, the event – part presentation and part fashion show – celebrates up-and-coming designers in the City of Angels.

The event shows off what is different about Los Angeles fashion. There isn’t an air of elitism; many designers are still getting their name out there, and there is a hands-on feeling to many presentations that is lacking in New York and other fashion week locations. However, there is a downside. Ever since Smashbox and IMG stopped the shows in Culver City in 2008, there has been a lack of support by the Los Angeles fashion world as well as the general LA community.

Vensel’s approach with Concept LA is to overlap the market and give the designers a place to show based on their own needs.

“Concept is focused on the fashion side of fashion week,” Vensel said. “It’s not about event production. It’s about the clothes.”

Some might remember Kitten Fashion Week, Vensel’s first gig in event production. The editor-in-chief of Kitten Magazine, Vensel ended the show in 2007. Although event production isn’t his first love – he’d much rather be designing – Vensel believes the future of LA fashion remains in the intentions of the producers.

“I think LA Fashion Week has gotten off track in a lot of ways because event producers focus on these big shows and then when it comes down to clothes… it’s just T-shirts or like a celebrity fashion line,” he said.

Mila Hermanovski, a contestant on Season 7 of “Project Runway,” presented her line, MILA, for the first time at Concept LA on Oct. 17.

“I had heard people talking about (LA Fashion Week)…that people don’t really pay attention to it and it’s later in the calendar year from other fashion weeks,” Hermanovski said. “Ultimately, I just wanted to show my collection. I’m more based in LA. If I were to take it to New York, I wouldn’t be able to be as hands-on or pull as many favors. I just know more people here.”

Hermanovski pointed out two problems that are facing Los Angeles Fashion Week. First, that there aren’t enough people attending and taking it seriously— including the press, buyers and the public—and second, that many designers have given up their posts in LA to move to New York.

“I know LA Fashion Week isn’t as well received as it could be, and I don’t know why that is, to be honest,” she said. “I just think the more people think negatively about it… it’s not going to be taken seriously.”

During a speech at Stevens College in Missouri, Hermanovski said the students asked the LA-based designer when she’d head to New York. It’s a question she has heard before.

The Rhode Island School of Design graduate lived in New York for eight years after college. She’s been in Los Angeles since 1998, establishing herself as a renowned costumer for films such as “Austin Powers” and the upcoming Disney “TRON: Legacy” remake. Although New York is a great city, she said, it has its cons as well. The space she shares in Los Angeles with her boyfriend – an 1,800 square-foot loft—would cost at least three times more in New York.

There’s also the production aspect of Los Angeles.

“There are so many more production options. There are two to three as many places to have your garments produced (in LA),” she said. “You can be much more hands-on. You don’t have to send your production overseas. It’s a lot easier to get around and get things done here than it might be in New York.”

She knows, however, what she faces as a designer when she shows in LA.

“The consensus is that you don’t get the same respect showing in LA that you do in New York,” she said. “You don’t get the same status as being a real fashion designer.”

When probed about IMG or Smashbox partnering up again, Hermanovski responded: “Somebody has to do something. I think it’s a real travesty that no one is doing anything about it. Ever since then, no one has tried to reinstate LA as a fashion city.”

Inka Sherman, designer of ISM Mode, agrees that Los Angeles Fashion Week is an important event for the city and for emerging artists.

“I think the biggest pro is that at LA Fashion Week, you can get exposure as a new brand. In New York, with all the established designers, I would imagine it would be more difficult,” she said. “The biggest con is the fact that LA Fashion Week is not attended by many buyers.”

Productions such as Concept LA are important, she said, because they put many different names under the same roof and encourage people to walk around and get familiar with new names. For example, Sherman, who grew up in Austria, showed off her vintage-inspired designs in an installation on Oct. 16. Models sat around on vintage furniture with pastel-colored frocks and exaggerated ‘50s styled hair while knitting clothes or flipping through magazines.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “The models were really enjoying it, so that was kind of cool too.”

Angel Johnson, a fashion designer who made her name by sculpting the costumes of the biggest pop stars, from Fergie to Rihanna, debuted her Spring 2011 Collection during a runway show at Concept on Oct. 16. The avant-garde designer isn’t afraid to push the envelope. Words such as mesh, metal or bare-skin might intimidate some contemporary designers, but Johnson is ready to surprise a few people.

“I loved the show. Some people got it, some people didn’t,” she said. “I was expecting that.”

Although Johnson is supportive of LA Fashion Week, she also sees where it lacks, and she hopes for a change.

“LA isn’t ready for risk takers,” the 24-year-old said, perhaps alluding to herself. “As soon as they are, LA Fashion Week will grow.”

She also pointed out a growing frustration with the fashion community.

“It’s looked at more of a buyers’ market than a cultural experience,” she said. “I’ve been reading articles where people say they want it to be taken more seriously. Then it says LA Fashion Week wasn’t very good.

“It’s this circle we’ve been going in.”

Hermanovski mentioned an event coming up that might change this cycle.

Fashion Los Angeles, a new fashion and lifestyle event, will debut a week prior to the shows in New York, from Feb. 1- 7. Its tagline reads, “The new global platform for Los Angeles fashion.”

Michael Venedicto, CEO and co-founder of the event, is known as a creative visionary, and his clients include Mercedes Benz, Gucci and MGM. Fashion LA’s website says that it will have next year’s affair with more than 65 designers and 10,000 professionals. According to the Global Language Monitor, in terms of fashion influence, Los Angeles is ranked fourth in the world (behind Paris, London and Hong Kong), as stated in Fashion LA’s press release.

Smashbox Studios was also contacted for the story and was unable to provide comment.

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