Spring 2008 collections from boutique designers and the eco-fashion vanguard were runway displayed this fall in Los Angeles. Industry insiders, celebrities, press, and friends watched models rock playful everyday designs and red carpet possibilities. Music tweaked, pretty strutted, and the fashion show reiterated its status as the modern theatre. Brief striking audio-visual experience, as we like it, followed and preceded by glamorous mingling, as less like it.
Christian Audigier After Natalie Reid stumbled 
in escorted as fake Paris looking for a seat, thirteen year-old Jasmine Villegas sweetly evoked the soulful glamour of Edith Piaf’s French classic La Vie en Rose, the inspiration behind the collection. The iconic song blended into the throbbing energy of modern European house music, creating the mood of a women getting hit on by a man she wants. Models in flashy yet classy black and gold signature outfits strolled the runway, transporting us to the moment of Liberation, 1945 Paris, when the Allied forces freed the city from Nazi occupation. As rapper Bow Wow said later at the after-party, "Yeah, I mean the fashion show was good. You know what I’m saying? It was hot. It was everything I expected, Christian’s coming with it again like he’s been dominating the scene for the past three years. It was hot. And on top of that it was my first fashion show…It was real cool. Real chill. Nice environment. It won’t be my last and Christian did his thing."
Tart The label loved for its pajama glamour dresses strolled out a collection 
inspired by a 70s Palm Springs poolside party. Actress Autumn Reeser of The O.C. declared, "I love Tart. I practically lived all summer in Tart clothes. They’re so comfy and they make the prettiest dresses. They’re so easy to wear, it’s just the greatest thing to throw on and go to the store in and still feel chic."
Voom by Joy Han A tech modern collection. Bright colors textured shine and classic geometric patterns. Vinyl coats. High heels high hair. Cheetah Girls Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams sported the label and delightfully finished each other’s sentences as they recounted getting ready together in the hotel room they’re staying in while they move into a new LA apartment. Adrienne pronounced that she’s into, "Dresses. I’m a girly girl, so I like dresses. I think the easiest way to get dressed is one piece one item, keep it pushing."
Evidence of Evolution A nymph sexy Midsummer Night’s awakening. Actor Adrian Grenier concluded after the show, "You can be environmentally friendly and fashionable. It’s proven," and designer Ali Alborzi added, "And it doesn’t have to be boring."
Backstage at Evidence, actor/director/model Vincent Gallo spun high fashion yarns: "I could go girls clothing shopping seven days a week and be in heaven…Taking a girl for clothes is the best date you can ever go on. 
There was a girl. There’s a girl, a friend of mine PJ, whose a very thin smallish person but she can walk in high heels better than anyone. She’s known as a performer, rock or whatever. Not a feminist, but you wouldn’t think she was so overtly into real sexy high heel shoes. And I took her once to Chanel on Spring Street in New York City and bought her the highest high heel shoes you’ve ever seen in your life. And we walked from Spring Street to 57th Street and she walked perfect, beautiful, like she was in Fulton sandals the whole way. Incredible. If you know a girl who can wear something like that, not just try it on, but really wear it, then to go and buy radical shoes for a girl who can really wear them…was almost the most fun, was one of the top memories of my life, just picking up these insane shoes and putting them on and marching through Manhattan. It was great." Gallo continued that he believes high heel shoes represent, "Submissive power. The combination. 
It’s stilted so it’s slightly vulnerable, but a strong interpretation of that, a strong interpretation of stilted power. It’s a strong interpretation of submission. Not strongly submissive, strong and submissive. If you say submissive maybe that conjures unpleasant thoughts for some women, but it just means strong and fragile as well. Vulnerable, in some ways. It’s the most sexy. It’s really sexy. Only if a girl can pull it off. If they’re like clomping, it’s the worst."
Oligo Tissew High fashion simplicity. Basic t-shirts and jersey dresses tweaked sexy by the eye of a designer. Women will feel comfortable, men will be impressed by their beautiful lack of effort.
Monarchy Aggressive trust fund cool. Jaded children of investment bankers. Conservative classics, hipster attitude. The grownup crowd at Smashbox was put off, but teenagers and young 20s forced to dress up will buy it.
Peligrosa Easeful, refined standards and accessories designed in LA, manufactured by family-owned factories in Japan. The spring collection utilizes organic cotton, wool, cashmere, and recycled cotton, dyed by-hand with organic and low-impact dyes. Designer Nico Morrison commented that, "A variety of venues are providing professional service and attempting to bring more attention to LA fashion. Our entertainment epicenter should be catered to in a more natural way – having fashion support entertainment arts and vice versa, in a way that flows organically with life in LA. LA is not Paris and shouldn’t try to be, we are an incredibly unique city with a unique outlook and lifestyle."
Samora Conservative European glamour. Notes of German imperialism and a Grecian spring. Backstage before the show model Heather Brown described what it is like to walk in a fashion show: "Natural, like walking down the street. It doesn’t affect me. I love performing in front to of people and it doesn’t affect me at all. I love walking the runway. The preparation before that, I don’t love it. Like sitting here I get bored." Less relevant to her elegant dream Goddess walk down the Samora runway, Heather talked of her swimwear design ambitions and her love of swimsuit modeling. When asked if having so much of her body exposed in a swimsuit worried her, she replied, "I feel more comfortable that way actually. I feel comfortable in my skin. Naked and comfortable." Bold and sexy, but also just the practical mindset of a model.
Jenny Han Luscious poolside day-to-evening art prints. "Bauhaus, graphic, pop art, all of that was such a huge inspiration for me," said the designer on the collection.
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Spring 2008 fashion shows in LA this fall of 2007 were green black laidback and other. Less-destroyed jeans, craft activated t-shirts, fly-by mini-dresses, silk synthetic sheens, bamboo and organic cotton. Comfort glamour, pop utopian California dreams of a future sustained in style. Celebrities have analyzed, models have walked and talked, we will have clothes to wear come spring.
Link: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios https://www.mbfashionweek.com/losangeles/
