The future of L.A. Fashion Week is unsure as IMG, the producer of fashion weeks around the world, and Smashbox Studios, the main venue for the L.A. shows, disolve their partnership.
It's no secret that L.A. Fashion Week doesn't attract the big name stars you would think a fashion event in Hollywood's own back yard would. New York Fashion Week and even foreign fashion weeks see more American celebs than their home-state event.
It's always been a chicken or the egg situation - celebs attend shows for the media coverage a lot of the time, and the paparazzi goes where the most celebs are. So who stopped showing up to L.A. first?
And then there are the missing big-name designers.
"At the beginning, people were more excited, so some of the serious L.A. designers participated then," Sue Wong told WWD, who until last season showed her collection at every Los Angeles Fashion Week.
"Gradually, it became more peripheral," Wong said. "They brought in people like Jenna Jamison and The Pussycat Dolls. It kind of got to be a joke toward the end. I pulled out because I didn't want that association with my brand."
IMG was clearly focusing their energies elsewhere, with senior vice president of IMG Fashion Fern Mallis in India organizing Mumbai Fashion Week instead of L.A.
According to WWD "Emerging talents like Jenni Kayne and Juan Carlos Obando, who started out showing in Los Angeles, eventually moved on to New York. Major West Coast-based designers like Monique Lhuillier and Max Azria chose to show in New York, and others, such as Gregory Parkinson and Trovata, got their own sponsors and presented collections off-site."
Here at ShinyStyle, it's partially the lack of designer talent that keeps us from providing as much coverage to L.A. Fashion Week as we do New York and other cities likes London, Milan and Paris. When Lauren Conrad is one of your big draws, it doesn't say good things about your event.
And, like many media outlets, by the time L.A. rolls around after a solid month of higher-profile fashion weeks, both our staff and our readers are reaching runway saturation. It would take big names and big talent to keep us motivated and keep our readers interested in yet another runway review.
[Image: Coutorture; Source]
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