BY VICTOR HOFF
Set amid the brooding clouds, hand passed chicken satay with a warm peanut sauce and the soft chortle of its participants, über-trendy Roppongi’s restaurant in La Jolla held court last night to the Fashion Week San Diego preview. The occasion, which presages the main event to be held downtown from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, is partly a public relations generator, partly a coming-out of sorts for this year’s designers but mostly it’s an opportunity for the event’s creators to showcase the growing success of the five-year-old project that started back in 2008.
“What we’re doing here today,” explains Aime Wilde, one of the event coordinators, “is introducing the media to our lineup of designers. We have 26 emerging designers and what we’re doing is introducing them. So what you’ll see is a little preview of their past collections – this is not what you’ll see on the runway. You won’t see their actual collections for the spring and summer of 2014 until the fall. What we have here is a more traditional lineup – plus-size women, accessories, ready-to-wear.”
When pressed to give us a taste of what we can expect, Aime diplomatically deferred. “That’s what they’re actually currently working on. For the next month, we’ll be meeting and checking in with the designers. We’ll be seeing what their inspirations are, their sketches, what their colors are going to be. So it’s still a work in progress.”
Allison Andrews, the founder and director of Fashion Week, spoke enthusiastically about the event’s growth. “We went from one day, last year, to three this year. And we’re at one venue for the whole five days – the Broadway Pier – and our occupancy has at least tripled. Last year our biggest night saw about 1,800 people and this year we’re expecting 3,000 people every night. This is huge growth. These aren’t even baby steps.”
But what accounts for such seemingly wild growth? Allison went on to explain. “Because of the press and the community support and the fact that designers from out of the state and out of the country are now applying here at Fashion Week San Diego. And not just because it’s a great event but because we’ve had proven successes. Five of our designers got picked up and were asked to show at New York Fashion Week. There are actually sustainable successes coming out of our event.”
And how do these emerging designers land themselves in the thick of things? I asked Allison to qualify the steps needed to be taken whereby a designer can participate in an event of this caliber. “There’s no real judge because fashion is subjective and I don’t think anybody should be allowed to judge another on the quality of their work. There’s a bar of excellence, of course – you need to have good hemlines, you have to know sewing 101 – so, yes, there is a bar. But just because someone is more fanciful and I’m more conservative doesn’t mean I’m not going to like them. So we got all that out of our system. Basically, what we do is base it on one qualifier: our designers have to be doing this full-time and they have to make this their full-time career. We want to work with serious designers.”
And for the young, possibly up-and-coming designers like Frania Contreras, whose collection goes by the more couture-sounding name Isabel Vianey, Fashion Week San Diego is an opportunity not just to hobnob with a culture obsessed by fashion but a very real chance to make her mark in the world. “I literally had to sit down and pray about it. And, you know, God willing, you let me know if I can do this. And then one day I said, ‘I’m going for it.’ And I’m comfortable with that decision. I know what I like. I know my aesthetic and as far as my designs? I know what a woman wants. At my age, I don’t want to be too young but I know I have a business sense and I am able to couple it with fun femininity.”
Words that just as easily might have come from Vera Wang at her age.
For more information on Fashion Week San Diego, visit them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or visit their Web site at fashionweeksd.com.
