Los Angeles Fashion Week has long been considered an underdog of Fashion Weeks, adorned with a little more edge and a little less hype than those in New York and Milan. But this year’s lineup gave the biannual event a little more pop, a new look, and a distinctly LA atmosphere that announced LAFW as a wonderful show in the industry.
As seen on influencers’ stories, often accompanied by a $20 glass of Chardonnay, the runway was packed with brazenly colorful fits and unabashedly unique voices, as well as highly influential guests taking in the gorgeous women strutting down the runway. And while styles change with the seasons, like leaves blossoming into ripe shades of yellow in spring, there’s some things that stay inevitable in the fashion industry: death, taxes and whispered commentary from the peanut gallery, judging the outfits with each passing model. It’s what makes these events must-see in person as opposed to watching highlights on your phone.
Design by Marina Safina (Blake Snawder)
What was the scuttlebutt this year? The sheer experimentation and bucking of tradition was what really stood out, creating a microcosm of Los Angeles on the runway. Art Hearts Fashion, the runway production platform behind LAFW, champions voices who reflect the city, in all its diverse, sprawling grandeur, and this year we got to see what makes LA, LA. Here are some designers that stood out:
Marina Safina
Marina Safina’s creative innovation knows no bounds. From her decadent models glowing like Botticelli angels to her velvet red corsets adorned with wooden horns, she opened LA Fashion Week with a vivid splash of theatrical cosplay. Her “Arrival of Angels” collection might not be primed for street wear — you’d be sent to a mental institution wearing one of these whimsical dresses down Wilshire Boulevard — but watching her spiritually themed dresses flap down the runway was a sight to behold. Inspired by her bout with breast cancer, the collection is strewn with optimism, resilience and the kind of high-art fashion you could only see at LA Fashion Week, not at a new unveiling of Dior’s Spring Collection in New York.
Design by Angelo Estera (Blake Snawder)
Angelo Estera
Beneath the iconic chandeliers of The Majestic Downtown Los Angeles, walking down the chic marble floors and neon-soaked lights of the runway, was Angelo Estera’s fabulously colorful Amour collection. With men dressed like Ken dolls in their fuzzy pink jackets and women adorned in dresses perfect for a fancy dinner on La Cienaga, the iconic designer delivered LA in a nutshell: people wanting to be seen, wearing shades inside, dressed in flashy yet tasteful streetwear, and showcasing a melting pot of backgrounds, ethnicities and sexualities that makes up the diverse streets just outside the show.
Maribel Julcahuanca
Maribel Julcahuanca opened the closing night with a stylistic mashup that was one of the most memorable fashion shows I’ve seen. Opening with Asian toddlers who were “aww”-inspiring and closing with a truly inspired acting showcase, where three female models, adorned in tight corsets, powder makeup and Jane Austen-esque wigs, play tug of war over a woman sobbing a waterfall of tears. It was moving, perhaps even monumental, for a fashion show, bringing messy experimental theater to the glossy runway, leaving the crowd in a state of absolute shock and silence, before erupting with deafening applause — the kind you hear after watching a divine tragedy on stage. The curtain call of models showing off their intricately woven corsets kept the applause going minutes after the show had closed.
Design by George Styler (Blake Snawder)
George Styler
The opening of George Styler’s hypnotic, battery-powered light board show was like entering a rave where everyone was dressed to impress. No ugly Coachella outfits here. The collection was vibrating with bedazzled dresses, female models wearing crowns straight out of a medieval epic, and, of course, the kind of music that had front row VIPs bopping their heads like bobbleheads on the dashboard. In the past five years, Styler has announced himself as one of Art Hearts Fashion Week’s key names, capturing the rowdy, ridiculously flamboyant side of Los Angeles that never sleeps and pulls up to the club in a bedazzled jacket. There’s a reason this designer has been featured repeatedly in Vogue — Styler is every bit as flashy as his name indicates.
Nathalia Gaviria
Finally, we have Nathalia Gaviria, boasting period accents woven throughout the collection, with chainmail dresses and medieval headpieces coexisting alongside slick tailored jackets and inky shades of nightfall. Gaviria gave us a medieval gothic lineup that had more attitude than most goth teenage girls and more style than most designers can cram into a career. Looks were finished with black knee-high boots, grey sheets of armor, pitch-dark eyeliner and occasionally, leather-clad gloves and waist liners that added depth to an already detailed show. Scored by minimalist tribal strings that gave the feeling of watching something daring, unsettling, provocative, the entire vibe was a great example of how LA Fashion Week struts differently than other fashion weeks, with a more diverse, underground flair.