Los Angeles Fashion Week ‘19 held its opening night at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, aptly named “Cars and Fashion” where the fashion elite descended for the weekend. Upon arriving on opening night, the red carpet was beautifully set up in front of the entrance to the museum with historic cars and a red roses-planted inspired backdrop while a live saxophonist played to today’s latest tunes as people walked the carpet.
The evening kicked off with LA-based fashion designer Walter Mendez, known for his couture and sophisticated evening gowns and bridal collections. Mendez has also previously shown at New York Fashion Week and his collections have traditionally echoed one of his core motivations for designing – his lasting respect for women as he was raised by a single mother. This collection was no different. Incredibly feminine and floral, you could say spring had literally sprung with everything from large floppy brimmed hats to flowers weaved into models’ hair and flower crowns that adorned their heads. His collection reimagined the latest trends in a very feminine and couture way from large tulle skirts to fluffy teddy-textured capes, velvet pantsuits, and kimonos. The collection started with peach and pinks and moved into purples and blues. You could see his attention to detail in every garment given its construction and use of so many styles and textures whether it was woven feathers, embroidered florals, tulle, organza or iridescent touches and embellishments. The designer came out in his own floral suit jacket to tie it all together.
After Walter Mendez, NYC-based designer Naeem Khan wowed the crowd with a very feminine yet menswear forward embellished collection. Considering he has dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton, his detailing is impeccable. Each model wore a different style of black embellished ties with their looks whether the tie was long and more traditional or was cut differently. Like Mendez, he also made use of woven feathers including in his first garment which featured a multi-colored feather-adorned jacket and a tie blouse. As each model came out, he reimagined the menswear vibe on each garment while still keeping each look trendy and feminine including with embellished pantsuits that featured red and black stripes, pants with feminine trim detailing on the side, capes with fringe and exquisite detailing, sequin detailed pants with short kimonos and gold leopard-print and silver and black zebra-print long capes that swept down the runway elegantly. He also utilized silver and gold coin embroidered belts on several garments in the collection in keeping with his Indian-American culture and to further tie the collection together.
Both designers showed us feminity imagined with their own eye on both sides of the spectrum; Mendez’ collection was traditionally feminine and Khan’s was feminine with a menswear-inspired vibe. As a female, I think they did a great job in capturing the essence of the female which some times can be super girly and other times more masculine, yet still elegant, dramatic, beautiful, and sweeping.
-Alyson S. Campbell
Photos: Todd Danforth Photography