Posts with tag GenArt

While Los Angeles fashion week tends to be generally lackluster, one of the shows we always look forward to is Gen Art's Fresh Faces in Fashion. (Full disclosure: we sometimes write for Gen Art's arts and culture blog, but were fans of the show long before that was the case.) The non-profit organization has launched the careers of fashion heavyweights including Derek Lam and Zac Posen. Fresh Faces shows are held in a few major cities each year, and are always a surefire spot for sighting upcoming designers.

GenArt's Fresh Faces program has brought notables like Zac Posen, Cloak, Philip Lim (Development) and Duckie Brown to the runway during New York Fashion Week when they were mere upstarts.

This year, the 14th annual show, features JF & Sons, Ideeen, Sariah, Lialia, Richard Ruiz and Chree in women's wear; Hyden Yoo and Philip Sparks in men's wear; and Antoinette Les Designs, Deka Ray, Heutchy and TNC Studios in accessories.

Plus, for the first time, online retailer Yoox will offer select looks from one lucky designer. JF & Sons (shown at right) was selected by Yoox, GenArt and former NY Times Style Editor, Holly Brubach. (We still haven't been asked to sit on any selection committees for GenArt. Humph.)

The day after Sept 4th's runway show, 15 different garments from JF & Sons, in a full size range will hit Yoox. JF & Son is co-designed by Jesse Finkelstein and Katheryn King. Finkelstein's bio reads: "A Brown University graduate and homeland security and terrorist financing expert." Presumably, that could make make her a candidate to become a secret, undercover agent.

And keep an eye on Hyden Yoo, the Fear Factor winner who used his prize money to start a line. We imagine the runway is lot less intimating to someone who has milked a goat with his mouth on TV. Yoo built strong word of mouth with his slim fit, cropped button downs, then moved onto a full collection.

In October, Fresh Faces moves onto Chicago (Oct. 1), then Los Angeles (Oct. 10). Another notable GenArt fact: the organization works closely with Bravo on Project Runway casting.

Like yesterday's gold turtleneck minidress from Christian Weber, today's Dress of the Day comes from a relatively fresh face in fashion as featured last Friday at GenArt's fashion show in Los Angeles - Wren Clothing.

With shades of purple a key color for fall, the deep, royal purple minidress with patch pockets in front is perfect as we head into cold weather. You can throw a coat over the short, banded puff sleeves, and to make it even warmer, take a cue from the model and add some thick black tights.

I haven't been able to find any online sources for purchasing Wren Clothing, but it available at Opening Ceremony in both New York and Los Angeles.

This past Friday, your Styledash team hit up the GenArt Fresh Faces in Fashion event in Los Angeles, which we'll be writing about in more detail later. We were introduced to a few relatively new names in fashion, and one of them is Christian Weber, who was most recently at BCBG Max Azria and Rock & Republic before starting his own line in 2006.

The gold long sleeve minidress is part of Christian Weber's Fall 2007 Collection, aptly named "Arms and Armor" for the permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

How perfect is this dress for either a night on the town with the ladies, or dressed up a little more for a swanky Holiday party?

Most of the shows we hear about for Fashion Weeks around the world are the Armanis, the Christian Diors, and the Marc Jacobs of the world. In other words, they are big designers who are very well-known. While I certainly look forward to seeing the next new collections of these bigger-name designers, there's a different kind of excitement I feel about up and coming designers. These are not just new collections that will play within the same design philosophy of a known designer. These are brand new ideas.

This is what I was waiting for at GenArt's The New Garde: A Celebration of Innovative LA Fashion at Ivar Studios on Friday night.

If you're curious about what people were wearing at the GenArt show last night, you might head over to Uber.com, a social webite (yes! another one!) that allows members to upload their photos and share with others. Their section called UberStyle "celebrates the newest in modern design and fashion, offering a curatorial perspective, from high to low, street to salon." That's a lot of words to digest, but I think it means that photographers have already uploaded photos from last night's event to share. We took a peek through the gallery, and though we were disappointed that we didn't find ourselves, we are glad to confirm that what real people were wearing and doing was far more interesting than what we saw in the shows.

I love that polka-dotted purple dress. The open shirt on the guy though, is a major StyleFoul.

Last night, we went to GenArt's The New Garde: A Celebration of Innovative L.A. Fashion, to check out three up and coming Los Angeles-based designers, Alms, Hazel Brown, and Mintee. The mini-review is coming later today, but for now, I'm sharing with you what I wore last night. I didn't have much time after a long day at work, so I went with simple, and once I got there, realized that I was dressed rather conservatively. Not everything pictured is the exact thing I wore, but you get the picture:

• Baby, it was cold last night, so I wanted to wear a teeny tiny almost sheer babydoll, but went, instead with a long-sleeve sweater mini-dress in a lighter color than what is shown (the one pictured is from Banana Republic).
• Nude colored 4" stiletto pumps (much higher than the Manolos pictured) with a fiercely pointed toe. They weren't the exact same color as my dress, but they were the same color as my winter-pale skin.
• Carried my little Burberry Nova Check Mini-tote
• Gold dangling earrings and two giant gold bangles
• Because the event started before sundown (thanks to Daylight Saving Time), I had my Gucci Rimless/Tortoise sunglasses.

Whaddya think? Did I do alright? I think I could have work this outfit to the office during the day, too!

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