Looks from Grai; click to expand
Gen Art kicked off LA fashion week yesterday at the Los Angeles Theatre Downtown. The three designers showing—Grai, Society for Rational Dress, and Raquel Allegra—made for a line-up that differed from GenArt’s usual suspects, consisting of brand new additions to the Los Angeles fashion landscape. These fashion labels are known entities, if not nationwide, definitely on this side of the country. Therefore expectations were high, and unfortunately the collections could only partly hold their ground.
Grai started the runway presentation and set the tone for the evening: somber music, muted colors (if any at all, in addition to the omnipresent tones of black and grey), and a whiff of goth in the air. The jackets were the strongest pieces of the collection, wide and lavish collars from the front, intricate ties and metal detailing on the back. The skirts and pants (mostly leggings) were long, sleek, and tight—their only function seemed to be to not distract the viewer’s eye from what was happening above the waist.
Society for Rational Dress and Raquel Allegra this way!
Looks from Society for Rational Dress; click to expand
Next up was Society for Rational Dress, whose flowy chiffon dresses with the usual belt detailing convinced the most, but also knit-dress armor-vest combos deserved a second look.
Looks from Raquel Allegra; click to expand
Last but not least was Raquel Allegra, who created a bit of a buzz with her spring collection last season. Tunics in her delicate spider web optic dominated the show, the most notable ones picked up the short-front long-back silhouette of Olivier Theyskens spring ‘09 collection for Nina Ricci. The models wore cowboy hats, and the resulting Wild West touch gave her collection a refreshing new context, moving away from the ethereal goth-rock princess of the past.
More from Raquel Allegra; click to expand
All in all, the designers stayed within territory they had explored in seasons prior, resulting in a polished, but familiar showing.
— Photos and text by Christina von Messling
» Fashions—Society for Rational Dress, Raquel Allegra, Grai are Good News for LA Fashion Week
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1 LA Fashion Week—BoxEight, Day 1 Brings Stew of Goth, Grunge and Eighties // Mar 15, 2009 at 1:59 pm
[...] first day at BoxEight continued on with the goth and grunge vibe that was so prevalent at Gen Art yesterday evening. Lots of blacks and greys (COA for guys, martinMartin for guys and gals, Skingraft for gals only), [...]
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