May Downtown Fashion Walk Featured in LA Times BRAND X Magazine!

Pick up a copy of the free Brand X Magazine put out by the LA Times today - May 19th and in the local news racks until next Tuesday Night.  It has a full page story on this Thursday's May 20th - Downtown Fashion Walk.

CONCEPT Fashion Week Show LIVE on the Internet - Tonight!

http://www.swaggmedia.com/

Go to the above page and click on the live streaming Fashion Week LA link at the top of the page. Show starts at 6:30 and goes until at least 9:00 PM.  

Times of shows at www.conceptfw.com
See runway shows by Jen Awad, martinMARTIN and The Battalion and presentations by Valerj Pobega, John Sakalis, Indian Casino, Katie Kay of Otto Gates and SKINGraft.

Los Angeles Times Covers Fashion Week New Fashion Show - CONCEPT - At Historic Downtown's Spring Arts Tower

All The Rage

THE IMAGE STAFF MUSES ON THE CULTURE OF
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

« Previous Post | All The Rage Home

Los Angeles Fashion Week: 'Concept' on the calendar

March 5, 2010 |  4:46 pm

Score one for the fashion cowboy. Friday afternoon the be-hatted Brady Westwater confirmed for All the Rage that his efforts to rope, throw and brand a fashion week is moving ahead -- although it appears to be kicking like a bucking bronco; its hooves are hammering a stretch of the calendar from March 19 through March 24, with a dust storm of details still to settle.

Still, it's a bright spot; as we mentioned a few days ago, it was starting to look like tumbleweed might be the only thing rolling through downtown during the traditional time frame for Los Angeles Fashion Week. Then Westwater -- whose past efforts to bring fashion-related events downtown include working with early incarnations of BOXeight and more recently starting a Downtown LA Fashion Walk -- saddled up and rode into the thick of it, announcing his willingness to work with local designers and the management of the Spring Arts Tower at 453 S. Spring St. to use that space for a few extra nights (he'd already reserved it, he says, as part of an upcoming Fashion Walk event).

Soon Mike Vensel (the designer, photographer and organizer of a short-lived Kitten Fashion Week held at the downtown Standard Hotel back in 2007) was saddling up beside him, and as of this writing, the newest dynamic duo of downtown is trying to circle the wagons and nail down all the details.

Westwater is short on specifics such as potential sponsors (beyond the building's management), participating designers and schedules, allowing only that the calendar is currently configured to entertain runway shows, art installations and  the like from March 19 through the 24th, with two of those days (Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st) already booked with shows.

"Right now we're in the phase of reaching out to designers to see what their needs are," he told All the Rage. "We're going to be flexible so that everybody who wants to stage a show can." He said that hopes are to line up sponsorships to cover the cost of staging the shows, said to be "a couple hundred bucks." "But we don't want anyone to be turned away for inability to pay," he said.

One important specific that has been hammered out is the name. "We're calling it 'Concept,'" Westwater said. "We wanted it to be something that was simple and easy and elegant."  While theConcept website is still under construction, interested parties should contact Westwater directly at bradywestwater@conceptfw.com.

While it remains to be seen what sort of event ultimately arises (we'll keep you updated as sponsor and designer lineups are confirmed), we're optimistic about its chances.

After all, everybody knows nailing the concept is the hardest part of any project.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: A look from designer Mike Vensel's runway show at BOXeight on March 15, 2008, at Los Angeles Fashion Week. Vensel and Brady Westwater are spearheading a group that's working to provide runway space at the Spring Arts Tower for designers to show their wares to press and buyers in downtown Los Angeles, through a just-announced show dubbed "Concept." Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times.

LA Times Asks - Can LA Fashion Week Be Saved From Being A Ghost Town? FInd Out - Tomorrow

LA Fashion Week: Ghost town in the City of Angels?

March 3, 2010 |  6:00 am

Downtown LA Fashion Week? M.I.A. Passion Revealed? Not so much. Mode Israel? Unless it's operating  in "stealth mode" it's currently another one of the events from last season's crowded fashion calendar that seems to have quietly disappeared off the Los Angeles Fashion Week map.

Of course, all that could change; downtown L.A.'s  "fashion cowboy" Brady Westwater is trying to rope the wind by offering to play go-between for displaced designers and the owners of the recently renovated 1914 Citizen's Bank space at 5th and Spring streets, to host a day or more of shows as part of the Downtown Fashion Walk (would that make it "Downtown Fashion Walk Week"? Stay tuned.)

(Much more at the above link.

Beverly Hills Fashion Week Cancels - Downtown's Spring Art Tower Show Expands To Meet Need

The last minute postponement of the new Beverly Hills Fashion Week - which was last year's Downtown Fashion Week at MOCA - has abruptly left many designers with no place to show at a time when fewer venues than normal were already scheduled to hold runway shows.  

Luckily, that pre-existing shortage had already caused the Spring Arts Building owner, Paul Su, to make his just restored 8,000 foot 1914 Citizen's Bank space at 5th and Spring - with over 20 foot ceilings - available to the Downtown Fashion Walk to host runway shows by designers who did not have a place to show - or who could not afford to pay the fees to show elsewhere.

That space will now host multiple major designer shows on not just one day, but on two or more days of Los Angeles Fashion Week, depending on the need.  Showings of the space to designers for runway shows or other installations will be taking place all this weekend by appointment.  Other producers are also encouraged to participate in using the space during Fashion Week.

To see the space or get more information - call Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396.

Trunk Show This Sunday! February 28th - 1PM - 4 PM

Spring 2010 Trunk Show   

 www.megandali.com

Shirley Chung & Catherine Fellowes invite you to check out the wears by

2 chicks from Portland, Maine who create one-of-a-kind textile designs

hand-sewn on flattering tees, yoga wear,

scarves, belts and more!

Sunday, February 28
1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
The Store
721 S. Los Angeles Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Questions. . . call shirley at 310.930.5770 or ali at 207.838.7820

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/The-Store/139563169918?ref=ts

·        Nibbles and beverages!
·        free raffle of super comfy burnout tee J
·        bring a friend and get 3 extra raffle tickets!

 Mona Sangkala

Cooper Design Space

860 S. Los Angeles St. - 900

Los Angeles, CA  90014

213 627 3754 p

213 629 5484 f

www.cooperdesignspace.com

www.cooperdesignspace.blogspot.com

twitter@thecooperstore

Fashion Week Sneak Preview, Millenary Guild Hat Extravaganza, Thirty Stores And Galleries Open - And Much More This Thursday At Downtown Fashion Walk!

On this Thursday’s February 18th Fashion Walk, our venues will include boutiques, solo designer stores; vintage clothing, furniture & book stores; art galleries & art installations; jewelers; contemporary furniture stores; and eclectic design shops – plus one big, one night only event.

First, the Millinery Guild of Southern California will showcase their hat designers in the grandeur of the old banking space in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th & Spring. They will also graciously host other leading LA hat designers inside the historic 8,000 foot space – under the just restored 20 foot 1914 ceiling - along with a dozen established and upcoming designers of all types –  and art installations by POP LOCK.

Elmer Ave will also display a selection of their current collection that will be purchasable either at the Spring Arts Tower  - or at their store, just a block away. Elmer Ave will also preview a few pieces of their new collection that will be shown during the March Fashion Week.

There will also be a selection of items for sale from leading Fashion Walk stores along Main and Spring and Sixth and Seventh – at 5th and Spring to expose other designers to a wider audience and to let you know why Fashion Walk is never over until you have seen all the Fashion Walk neighborhood has to offer.

Also open that night will be the adjoining art spaces – POP LOCK, the Deborah Martin Gallery and the new CB1 Gallery – which was called (repeatedly) one of the most beautiful spaces to show art in LA when Clyde Beswick opened it last Saturday with solo shows by HK Zamani aka Habib Kheradyar and Daniel Aksten.

Then, after a night of fashion and art, only a couple hundred feet away - you can retire to the elegance of the marble walls, wood paneling, Batchelder tile floors – and antique bank vault private rooms - of the Crocker Club – or you can enjoy the neighborhood feel and spacious outdoor patio of the Down and Out, or you can take in the warm ‘everyone knows your name’ atmosphere of The Must, where food and drink are equal priorities.

Or you can savor your meal at the long time local favorite - The Ensenada Mexican Restaurant - that now draws customers from all over Los Angeles or dine at the recently opened Gorbals which just received an enthusiastic review by Pulitzer prize winning critic Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly of its highly adventuresome menu and a glowing review from the LA Time’s own S. Irene Virbila about her only in Downtown culinary and sensory experience of every kind when she described how she woke up in her bed the morning after – and wondered if the night before had all just been a dream.

And all this is available for you to sample within a couple hundred feet of the venue.

But before tackling all that wining and dining there is still more art and fashion to see – over a couple dozen more stores to visit along Main and Spring between 4th and 7th – with each store’s hours to be announced by Wednesday night when the official Fashion Walk map goes on-line.