Last year, the City of Los Angeles did not officially participate in Fashion's Night Out but influential retailer, Fred Segal, did throw out the red carpet and klieg lights for it. The prepetually trendy retailer was one of the city's first to show local but big fashion some love the city followed suit.
However, this year and in two weeks time, Friday, September Tenth, Fashion's Night Out will be celebrated nationwide event where both New York and Los Angeles are going to be shining beacons of American fashion.
For Los Angeles, more than ever, it will showcased the city's $5.7 billion dollars apparel industry from the city's 5,000 fashion lines stationed in the greater Los Angeles area, proving to the world that the City of Angels is a major industry player, $33 billion dollars regionally. It is not just a one-note industry town.
Cynthia Ruiz, heads Mayor Villaraigosa's Public Works Board but unofficially, she is his liaison for the city's fashion industry for the past four years. Due to the major figures above, the Mayor does take the local fashion industry very seriously. Sequentially, he wants the city to show some Los Angeles love to the industry.
What initially started out as a purely Manhattan collaboration between Vogue Magazine, Mayor Bloomberg's office, and QVC, has ignited a nationwide celebration where each participating city celebrates its homegrown fashion industry and talents.
Various area leads or neighborhood representatives from the city's trendiest districts, from Bohemian Cool Abbot Kinney in Venice, Westside LA's Century City Mall to paparazzi-starlet central Robertson Boulevard to downtown's Garment District to even Pasadena, are throwing a total of 300 stores and boutiques will throw happenings, events, parties, and activities on one, single night of September 10th between 6pm to 10pm.
The central hub for all these will be the Beverly Center Mall where Mayor Villaraigosa and confirmed celebrity, Will I Am of the Black Eye Peas, will commence the official opening ceremony at 5pm on Friday, September 10th.
Joining them will be the designer, Randolph Duke, MTV's Rob Dyrdrek, Sara Rue, Stephanie Rue, Stephanie Pratt, Kevan Hall, Pauley Perrette, Louis Verdad, and many more to come.
All three floors of the mall will have fashion shows.
The first three hundred shoppers/attendees will get the official Fashion's Night Out tee-shirts and free parking between 4pm and 10pm.
Vogue's West Coast editor, Lisa Love, will host Macy's "Denim Rock" fashion while Bloomingdale's will throw Men Suiting Night, and another show on Sixth Floor Center Court.
From there, the attendees can board free DASH buses that will take them to and from Abbot Kinney, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood's Melrose Avenue and West Third Street, Los Feliz, Westfield Topanga in the Valley and Downtown to the three hundred stores celebrating Fashion's Night Out.
If people spend, at least, $25 at the one of the three hundred participating retailers in any of these neighborhoods and keep the receipt, the City of Los Angeles will show the love by opening the doors to SBE's hottest nighclubs, Industry at 643 North La Cienega Boulevard and XIV on 8117 Sunset Boulevard where they can party like a fashionista/supermodel from 10:30pm into the wee hours of 2:00am.
Think of Fashion's Night Out as a really cool and fun scavenger hunt where people, locals and tourists, have the chance to explore the different styles reflecting the city's micro-cultures in these eight, wide-ranging neighborhoods that have been displayed in popular magazines, television shows, and the media through out the world.
This isn't just a mere shopping extravaganza but a showcase of the major trends that have influence the world in contemporary fashion and streetwear, proving Los Angeles is the sister major player to the more recognizable New York.
Among the twenty-two events occuring in the Melrose Avenue District will be the venerable purveyor of cool, Fred Segal, will throw a shoe party for Vivienne Westwood and Melissa, a Dan Eldon gallery, Jeff Rudes of J. Brand, New York's Jean Shop, Monrow, and Spirit Hoods will offer styling sessions. The surfing crew from Quicksilver will be there. Sjobeck crew from Malibu will have photobooth and numerous local and hip jewelry designers will be there to entertain and inform.
G-Raw Denim will hosts DJs and drinks and the RAW World Chess Challenge.
The gentlemen outfitter for the more established rocker, John Varvatos will have to be announced musical performances, Casa Nobel drinks, hors d'oeuvres and valet, an exhibit and book signing by Robert Knight. His works are available with a $300 purchase.
The art gallery/fashion boutiques, FOUR, will split itself into four gallery spaces: Casual Hipster to the beach; Trendaholic dancing away in a club; the Power Player in the office; and Haute Headliner is in the penthouse.
Tarina Tarantino and Rudy's Barbershop are doing major DJ sets. Tarina will offer makeup lessions from her current Fall line while Rudy's will give away swag bags when people spend a certain amount-keep the receipt for the nightclubs.
For folks living out in the Valley, Westfield Topanga Mall will have 47 participating retailers. Twenty-one will hand out refreshments. Fourteen are providing gifts with purchase. Five offer percentage discount. Another five will have entertainment.
West Third Street's highlight is Hillary Rush doing a fashion show with Crumbs Cupcake, gifts with purchases from LA Made, free Miss Marissa perfume, and debuting the new RUSH REID handbag line.
Abbot Kinney's Bohemian Exchange will magicially transform into a Midsummer Night's Dream
of ethereal fashion shows and exotic processions. A festival with Elvish and Faerie dancers, performers, musicians, magicians at Ascended Living Spa while feasting on PatisseRaw and Magic Cookie Lady cookies. Guests can buy Venetian masks to join in the fantasy.
Confederacy in Los Feliz will have signings and photo-ops with celebrities, smorgasbord of designer trunk shows while imbibing in cocktails and appetizers as the DJs spin tunes. Folks will get to meet Los Feliz's artists.
The Cynthia Rowley "Shop on Wheels" Truck will land on Ninth Street in the Garment District, in front of California Mart.
These are the galaxy of fashion highlights radiating all over the City of Angels on Friday, September 10th.
There is everything for everyone. Finally, Los Angeles shows some acknowledgement and recognition and most importantly, respect to a homegrown industry is that also a fashion capital to be reckon with.
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