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by Anna Scott
DOWNTOWN
LOS ANGELES - Start practicing your strut, because Thursday, Aug. 20,
will mark the inaugural Downtown Fashion Walk — just wear comfortable
shoes, please.
The Fashion Walk does not refer to a runway
sashay. Instead, it is modeled (so to speak) after the monthly Downtown
Art Walk. For four and a half hours, Downtowners will get a self-guided
walking tour that leads to clothing designers, boutiques and other
fashion-forward attractions. And if people happen to stop for a drink
or a meal on the way, all the better.
“The first idea was that
[the Fashion Walk] would be a map,” said longtime area activist and
Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Vice President Brady
Westwater, who is spearheading the Fashion Walk. “There would be a
website listing all the different fashion stores in the area, and the
map would be handed out to all the stores. I figured that someday we
should do a full Fashion Walk, and after the success of the last Art
Walk I figured now is the time to do it.”
The Fashion Walk will
take place between Broadway, Fourth, Seventh and Main streets from
5:30-10 p.m. It will encompass more than two dozen Downtown clothing
stores, temporary pop-up stores, and special sales and exhibits, said
Westwater. He was still finalizing the list of participants late last
week.
Westwater
said he plans to continue the Fashion Walk on the third Thursday of
each month. Eventually, in addition to attracting shoppers to Downtown
for a night, he hopes the event will raise the area’s profile as a
destination for apparel-oriented businesses and retailers.
“It’s not just about fashion,” Westwater said. “We’re trying to help the local economy.”
The
Fashion Walk takes its cues from the Art Walk, which occurs the second
Thursday of each month. During the event, arts spaces in the Historic
Core’s Gallery Row open their doors for extended hours to show off
their exhibits. Many area restaurants and businesses also stay open
later than usual and a block party atmosphere ensues. The Art Walk
audience has grown from a mere 12 people when it debuted in 2004 to
approximately 10,000 attendees in July, said event director Richard
Schave.
No one expects the inaugural Fashion Walk to be nearly
as popular. Still, Westwater is hoping to engender a festive
atmosphere, and one Fashion Walk event promises to help his cause with
cupcakes, conversation and “bodacious bonnets.”
A hat sale and exhibition titled “You’re the Top,” organized by writer and deepglamour.net
blogger Virginia Postrel, will take over the lobby at the Farmer’s
& Merchants Bank building at the corner of Fourth and Main streets
from 6-10 p.m. The “celebration of glamorous hats and the people who
wear them,” said Postrel, will feature creations by milliners such as
Stella Dottir (who owns a Historic Core shop), Louise Green and Arturo
Rios, plus items from makeup artist and hat connoisseur Wendy Ann
Rosen’s collection. Some of the hats will be for sale, others for
display only. The event will also feature slide shows, a photo booth
and prizes.
Postrel decided to do the
show because “hats have many of the qualities that define a glamorous
accessory.” She added, “There are door prizes for people who wear hats,
and you get more tickets if you wear real hats. If you wear a baseball
hat, you only get one ticket.”
The Pacific Electric Lofts
building at 610 S. Main St. will be another key Fashion Walk stop. The
building’s ground floor will host several pop-up stores from small
designers, said Westwater, offering clothing, jewelry and other
accessories.
A wide range of Downtown boutiques plan to
participate, from the Shoe Hut at 629 S. Broadway to a shop
specializing in military and civilian uniforms at 214 W. Fourth St.
Also on board is avant-garde fashion label Skin.Graft, which has a
boutique at 125 W. Fourth St.
Skin.Graft will display some of
its high-end couture looks, not generally sold in-store, and offer a
preview of its upcoming collection during Thursday’s event, said
company co-creator Katie Kay, who also helped organize Fashion Walk.
Kay said she hopes the Fashion Walk will open other retailers’ eyes to
Downtown.
“The success of Art Walk has been really inspiring for
everyone down here,” said Kay. In terms of fashion, she said, “we’re
getting stronger and stronger with boutiques. We just need to prove it
to the bigger retailers.”
Westwater said he also hopes that the Fashion Walk will build momentum for the 2-year-old Downtown Fashion Week in October.
“It’s basically about maintaining Downtown as a fashion center,” he said.
Westwater
co-founded the biannual Downtown Fashion Week in 2007 with real estate
developer Gary Warfel and artist Peter Gurnz. The amalgamation of
runway shows and related events takes place in March and October. It
was created to coincide with the official Los Angeles Fashion Week,
which moved from Downtown to Culver City in 2003.
This fall,
with Los Angeles Fashion Week taking place at venues throughout the
city, Downtown has even more of an opportunity to grab the spotlight.
Yet, some local business leaders say, Fashion Walk and Fashion Week do
not necessarily attract the same crowd.
“The Fashion Walk is
more focused on the consumer,” while Fashion Week is aimed at the
fashion press, said Fashion District Business Improvement District
Executive Director Kent Smith. “I would be cautious to say that it’s
going to have a dramatic effect on the plans for Fashion Week.”
Still, he added, “Anything that focuses attention on Downtown is not bad.”
Carol
Schatz, president and CEO of the Downtown Center Business Improvement
District, echoed that sentiment. Like the Art Walk, she said, she hopes
the Fashion Walk will endear more Angelenos to Downtown.
“I
don’t know what kind of record-keeping, if any, anyone keeps” on the
financial impacts of Art Walk, she said. “But the impact has been
enormous in terms of changing people’s perceptions about Downtown. It’s
grown exponentially, and the fact that we’re getting those really good
crowds every month is an indication that the word spreads.”
The
Downtown Fashion Walk is Thursday, Aug. 20, from 5:30-10 p.m. in the
area bounded by Broadway, Fourth, Seventh and Main streets.
Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.
*The
location of the "You're the Top" hat event was moved after publication
of this article, to the Spring Arts Tower at 453 S. Spring St. The
event entrance will be at 201 W. Fifth St.
©Los Angeles Downtown News
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