A very tall, thin woman, presumably, will be strutting down a runway this week in Los Angeles wearing a dress designed by Farah Angsana. You’re probably asking yourself, “Who the hell is that?” Last month, men in New York wore designs by Nautica and at least one woman walked around in a dress designed by the famed Calvin Klein. Why do you care?
New York Fashion Week, like Paris Fashion Week (with a modern flair), is a fashion frenzy—an inspirational and social event for the domestic and foreign fashion-obsessed. Some of the most anticipated names (not necessarily the high-fashion houses like Chanel, Gucci, etc.) on the cutting edge of modern fashion appear on the New York runways twice a year. Some crazy people would give up a cute puppy or their right arm to be sitting in the front row of one of these shows. The mayhem continues almost 12 hours a day for seven days.
This upcoming week here in the city of angels is Los Angeles Fashion Week, which hasn’t exactly glamorously ingrained itself on the fashion map like its eastern metropolitan counterpart. That isn’t to say that the designers showing their collections in L.A. are not respected, inventive or brilliant for that matter. They are a different version of the up-and-coming. As ridiculous as it sounds, L.A. Fashion Week is a metaphor for the beast and blessing that is the city of Los Angeles.
L.A. Fashion Week doesn’t exactly channel its eastern counterpart. There are a few shows sprinkled in each day by designers that are more than likely unknown to those outside the fashion world. L.A. Fashion week is something like this: it an event that happens, that’s trying to improve, but just wants to get done with so that people can get on with more important things. It’s there, it’s trying, it wants to be fresh, new, inventive, original, and it may succeed in being regarded as these things, but it is not one for the history books.
Los Angeles is a melting pot of people that help fuel modern ideas in art, music, literature, culture, lifestyle, etc. The city often produces great things, but is also home to sandy beaches and the entertainment industry. This superficiality, slower way of life (compared to that of New York) paired with the lack of geographic coherence (city center anyone? What IS Downtown L.A. anyway?) retards any further progression in establishing prominence in various fields other than entertainment.
Los Angeles has a long way to go in making a name for itself in areas other than foul-mouthed rap music and bad romantic comedies (don’t get me wrong, these things bring a lot of joy to my life.) L.A. possesses its own charm and Angelenos seem to be a step ahead in defining the up-and-coming but fail to hold a stronger ground than cities like New York City. O.K., so we are a younger city. But, we have 400 square miles more of elbowroom than that of someone standing on the island of Manhattan. Maybe Angelenos are too busy sunbathing in Venice. And maybe it is a blessing in disguise.
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1 comment:
loveee it. great topic! :)
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