Fashion Shows Los Angeles

One has to wonder if the cigars wielded during the weekend's California Collections were recycled by the assistant stylists between fashion shows, or if each model was issued his or her own puff piece. The accessory of the minute symbolized those oft-abstract sources of inspiration that the fashion world lives to bestow on clothes. For spring and summer '97, cigars suggest Ricky Ricardo's Cuba.

Many in the whooping, hollering crowd at the fashion show of the AIDS Project Los Angeles gala last week didn't know they were seeing 10 years' worth of highlights from Todd Oldham's collections. Their ignorance is a convincing argument for classics that at first glance seem anything but classical, because the silver-studded gowns, long slinks of multicolored stripes and rhinestone-paved miniskirts from seasons past didn't look a bit dated on the Bergamot Station runway.

It wasn't New York, but that's exactly the point. When it comes to fashion, California designers proved on the runway Tuesday at CaliforniaMart that they have designs of their own. They could not care less about all those shirtdresses, trench coats and culottes shown last month on New York runways during that city's spring 2001 Fashion Week. In L.A.

Seventeen designers. Three hundred-fifty guests. And, damas y caballeros, mucho Latino flair. That was the scene at the black-tie "Hispanic Designers" gala that featured the creations of Latino designers, most from the Los Angeles area. Sponsored by the nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based Hispanic Designers Inc., the Thursday show at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel was the second stop of a three-city tour that began in Washington last month and moves on to Miami in November.

Nothing a fashion designer wears for an important appearance is randomly selected. As Jeremy Scott stood backstage at his first U.S. show last week, he was dressed in a shawl-collared tuxedo jacket, a mostly unbuttoned ruffled shirt, Miu Miu sandals, a gaudy rhinestoned eagle necklace and, hanging from his shoulder, a tattered, yellow and white striped cotton tote bag from Giorgio of Beverly Hills. On anyone else, the bag would just be another rescued relic from the '80s.

L.A. Fashion Week starts today, and this season there are more shows than last year as well as lots of parties as the local fashion scene tries to rise to its red-carpet reputation. No one is pretending the five-day week will rival those in New York, Milan or Paris, but this season's events are attracting more attention, especially from the media. CaliforniaMart, the downtown wholesale center of L.A.'

Dresses, dresses and more dresses. From animal-printed minis to mega-watt glamour gowns, designer Nicole Miller sent out more than 100 of them in a 40-minute retrospective fashion show of her work Wednesday night. "I've never done a show this big," Miller said backstage about her 140-ensemble production, a highlight of the 11th annual California Fashion Industry Friends of AIDS Healthcare Foundation party that raised $400,000 for the organization's outpatient facilities and programs.

The frenzied crowd that pushes its way into Gucci's fashion shows twice a year in Milan, Italy, anticipates much more than clothes. Once the lights go up and the music starts, they know they'll see models who seem to have interrupted rich and possibly scandalous lives to strut the runway.

Latino designer Eduardo Lucero may be known for the candy-colored ruffle skirts and flamenco-inspired lace dresses he contributed to last spring's Cubanismo craze in fashion (and everything else for that matter). But the fall collection he previewed last week proves he is more than a one-trick pony. The sneak peek at Lucero's new line was part of a benefit for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation held at the newly opened Conga Room.

Steven Stolman isn't sure if people west of the Hudson River will understand his clothes, which are made of printed upholstery fabrics--florals, chintzes, toile de Jouys, chinoiseries or those with neoclassical motifs. His shops in Southampton, Mass.; Nantucket, Mass.; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Manhattan cater to what used to be called "the carriage trade." (He still calls it that.