Wednesday, April 4, 2007

But wait! Coming round the bend is Los Angeles, LA's gaining, through the turn, LA ahead by a nose...

Though Los Angeles fashion week has come and gone, it still is on my mind because A) I'm not finished with my revision of my blasted paper criticizing Angelino fashion as an art form and B) I just finished editing the video footage for this week's episode of Take 5. (*shameless plug alert!* watch it at: www.trojanvision.com new episodes every Friday at 8pm pst.) Those thoughts aside, there is one show from this year's fall collection that sticks out as a horse of a different color in the world of runways. It's kind of like my idea for fat kid trick-or-treating: instead of the children dressing up and going door-to-door gathering goodies, instead they sit in their driveways while people drive mobile homes down their streets throwing candy at them like in a parade.

What does any of this have to do with anything, especially fashion? Well, this show did a take on art gallery style showing instead of your traditional style. No, this time, Rami Kashou's models did not walk down the catwalk to heart-pumping, head-pounding dance trance remixes while everyone sat in darkness oohing and aahing. This time, the models filed down the runway, spacing evenly, and stood there, stoic, posing, graceful, mannequinesque. The music was replaced by a string quartet, filling the art space with warm melodic background ambience, and the spectators filed in as well, murmuring about each dress as if they were works of art all by one painter. Which they basically were.

LA fashion week definitely did have its usual rock-and-roll vibe, but there were several select shows such as Kashou's that dared to be different, and in doing so, shined brighter than all the rest. This by far was one of the best, most stylized presentations that I saw, and could easily compete with any couture wear coming out of New York, Milan, or Paris. And just so you don't have to scour the internet to see what I'm talking about, here are some snapshots for your viewing pleasure:



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