Dedicated Follower of Fashion

LAFW: FGILA, Designer and Muse Event

Finally I've reached my LAFW coverage....you know it was only, oh, a month ago now! Geeze.

The FGILA Designer and Muse event is a fun one, you sup champagne, mingle with all the best L.A designers and their muses and listen to jazz. Quite the classy shindig.

I attended with my partner in crime for this particular night, Teresa Marino, and together we snapped both the stylish attendees and the designers....enjoy!

From left to right: Wendy Bendoni, Myself, Teresa Marino and Kalyn Ryan.

Designer, Sue Wong and Muse

Me, wearing a Chloe dress and Antoni and Alison purse.

Designer, Mike Vensel and muse.

Kelsi x

Dedicated Reportage: Le Shoppe by Los Angeles Fashion Council

Los Angeles Fashion Council x Two Point Oh! LA for Le Shoppe with ASOS Marketplace from Kelsi Smith on Vimeo.

One of the most exciting things to come out of our trip to London was the chance to work with ASOS Marketplace in setting up our boutique for L.A designers as part of the Los Angeles Fashion Council.

Whilst the rest of the world thinks we’re all flip-flop-footed, Ed-Hardy-wearing fashion nobodies, those who care – those who spend time in the right crowds – know that there is a fashion scene in Los Angeles that is alive and well and creating some of the most innovative fashion this side of London. Through the work of the council and our tours, such as February's show room for London Fashion Week, we're looking to put these talented individuals on the map changing the global perception of Los Angeles whilst evolving our fashion community at home.

With the help of the team at ASOS Marketplace, who visited our London Calling Show Room in the UK, we're so excited to be able to give these designers a venue to sell their collections.

Launching today, "Le Shoppe" by Los Angeles Fashion Council, features the work of some of the designers we took to London; Alana Hale, Jen Awad, Curly V, The Bohemian Society by Victor Wilde, Sires Crown Eyewear, Kittinhawk and Bijou Van Ness. The collection also features Los Angeles Fashion Council original t-shirts.

For many of our designers, this is first time their collections have been available at retail, and many pieces are exclusively available through our store.

The photography for our store was shot on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, by me and the collections were modeled by some of our best local fashion bloggers from L.A bloggers organization Two Point Oh! LA including, Olivia Lopez of Lust for Life for Alana Hale, Lux Leonard of Lux Likes It for Jen Awad, Chanelle Laurence of The Penelope Times for Curly V, Jenny Wu of Good, Bad and Fab and Peter Adrian of The Hobbyist for The Bohemian Society, Bethany Struble of Snakes Nest for Kittinhawk, Marie Legette of The Curvy Fashionista for Bijou Van Ness and again, Peter and Bethany for Sires Crown Eyewear.

Behind the scenes of our shoot were local fashion stylist and DIY blogger, Kristen Turner, Carlos Ramirez on make-up and Diana Lomelin on hair.

I'm so excited by how all this has come together and so proud of everyone involved! Now...get shopping!

You can check out more photography from the store here: http://on.fb.me/leshoppepics or at the store itself: http://bit.ly/leshoppe

Kelsi x

Dedicated Reportage: Margin Tradeshow, London

The Margin Tradeshow is a lot smaller than your average tradeshow, with a focus on smaller, indie, niche brands. There were some really fantastic discoveries to be made and I was particularly enamoured with Karlinka, an Austrian line.

The fabrics are traditional folk fabrics in super saturated colours and fashioned into vintage inspired dresses, creating this saccharine feast for the eyeballs. I'd wear every piece. The work was impeccably done and felt fresh.

My other favourite of the day had to be the Me and Zena jewelry line. Completely whimsical and fun but chunky and substantive. The pencil and sharpener inspired line is ingenious and I want every piece, particularly the pencil bangle and sharpener ring.

I feel like fashion is having a love affair with pencils right now (hello - Mary Katrantzou!) and I'm totally on board.

(Price points approx $35-70)

Kelsi x

Dedicated Reportage: Pure London Tradeshow

Whilst, seemingly, everyone else in the US fashion industry was headed to either Magic or New York Fashion Week mid February, I was headed to enjoy some fashion a little further afield, in my home country.

Pure Tradeshow is one of the biggest fashion tradeshow's in the UK and features a vast array of apparel, accessories, and shoes cleverly broken down by demographic. Heading to Pure was actually the impetus for my entire trip to London (which obviously resulted in a lot more than a tradeshow visit - hello Los Angeles Fashion Council!) - as Stylesmith, as an agency, expands, I really want to focus on not only Los Angeles brands, but British brands too. Merging my two homes.

I have plans to open a show room in the next few months and I attended as both a journalist and to seek out potential new clients.

The following labels were some of my absolute favourites from our excursion!

Mina

Here's the thing. Put me in a room full of British fashion and it's then that you realise how very inspired I am by the aesthetic that is so inherently British. A little bit vintage, a little bit of whimsy and a lot colour and romance. This describes the Mina brand to a T.

The prints and the delicate collars were absolutely gorgeous, and the price points, delicious...they come in around or under $100. Nice!

Beyond Skin

Beyond Skin is a pretty darn awesome idea....beautiful shoes made entirely of non leather fabrics. For this vegetarian, who fails miserably when it comes to leather goods, it's an excessively appropriate company. Great quality shoes, on trend and classic styles, but no dead animals - yayness.

Louche

Louche is another one of those gorgeous vintage inspired brands, filled with whimsy and character. Their tea dresses and blouses feature the quaintest prints, bold colours and vintage cuts.

Love.

Dahlia

Dahlia was already one of my favourite UK brands going into the Pure Tradeshow, so it was exciting to see what they had on show. The line is the ultimate in girly goodness - florals, eyelet cotton and sunshine-y colours - vintage styling and über feminine. I literally wanted everything.

We also got to stop by some of my other favourite brands, Darling being one of them (I literally have no idea why I have no pics - I could have sworn I took some!) and meeting with their husband and wife team was a privilege, they were simply lovely, it's bee great watching their success here in the Los Angeles market and I know the brands above can do just as well :)

Kelsi x

 

Dedicated Reportage: London Calling

There was a reason I was jetsetting across Europe last month, and it wasn't just to feel like an international fashion maven. In Febraury (on Valentine's Day to be precise) The Los Angeles Fashion Council kicked off London Fashion Week in the first leg of our two year program promoting Los Angeles design on a worldwide platform at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, London.

Designers Alana Hale, Curly V, Victor Wilde (The Bohemian Society), Jen Awad and Chris Erven (Sires Crown Eyewear) accompanied their collections to London for the three day event and industry preview. Collections from Kittinhawk, Robynn Molino, Kao Pao Shu and Bijou Van Ness were also on show.  

“Having the opportunity to be an L.A. designer showing in London has been a once in a lifetime experience - meeting with London based press and buyers has put L.A back on a global fashion platform” - Jen Awad, Designer.

Alana Hale with Harrods Buyer, Imogen Richardson

Alana Hale and Singer, Josie Florence (incidentally...my little sister ;)

Jen Awad being interviewed by some fabulous bloggers.

The crowd outside ;)

 Our designers met with international press and buyers throughout the week including major department stores such as Harrods, pre-eminent online retailers, ASOS and retail icons such as Koh Samui.

Designer Victor Wilde with ID Mag stylist Aaron Francis Walker

British girl band Little Mix on the Brit Awards Red Carpet. Perry, far left, is wearing Curyl V.

Prominent stylists were also in attendance, leading to red carpet placement for one of our designer’s, Curly V, at this years Brit Awards. Perrie Edwards of Little Mix, this years UK X Factor winners, wore his “bodyguard” body con dress, with a neckline encrusted with hand sewn buttons, causing quite the stir on the red carpet.

The show also resulted in a British Vogue feature, as part of twelve exhibitions they featured in their "Off Catwalk Round Up" - you can see the piece here.

I was so touched at the sheer amount of support my home town of London has offered my new home, Los Angeles, on our visit - we cannot wait to return and share more of the bright, young talent Los Angeles has to offer next year.

Kelsi x