Is it Time to Pay Attention to Los Angeles Fashion Week?

In the six years since I moved from New York to Los Angeles to cover the latter's burgeoning fashion scene (and enjoy the beautiful weather and ample closet space), I have not once attended a L.A. Fashion Week event. In fact, it's barely even been on my radar, and I know I'm not alone in this amongst my fellow West Coast fashion editors and journalists.

This has nothing to do with a lack of design talent here — the city's buzziest names tend to show elsewhere, outside of the LAFW schedule, or not at all — and there's obviously no dearth of celebrities and content creators to help bring attention to it. Honestly, it's a shame that, for whatever reason, LAFW has failed to represent what is actually an exciting local industry, or the city's growing relevance to the global fashion conversation. (Just look at how many of the top luxury houses have staged runways here in the last few years.) But that may finally be starting to change as N4XT Experiences, which acquired LAFW last year, gears up for its 2023 edition, scheduled for Oct. 18-22.

The live-event company has set out to transform and elevate LAFW with new designers, partners, programming and hires. Regarding the latter, it made a pretty big one in July: Noah Kozlowski, former director of designer relations at IMG (which organizes New York Fashion Week, among others), is now N4XT Experiences' vice president and head of designer relations for LAFW.

"I am responsible for the curation of our designer programming and brand partnerships for LAFW," he explains over email. "My goal is to continue elevating our overarching event platform and bring in the right brands to participate to inspire audiences and develop new business opportunities for N4XT Experiences and the designers."

As a result, LAFW's preliminary lineup (the full schedule has yet to be revealed) includes some exciting names: Tara Subkoff's Imitation of Christ will open the event and No Sesso will close while Theophilio, Sergio Hudson, Luis de Javier, Tombogo, BruceGlen and Advisry will be making their LAFW debuts across the five days. Returning to LAFW are Gypsy Sport, AnOnlyChild, Demobaza and Sami Miro Vintage.

"Our designer lineup highlights talent from around the world and offers something for everyone," says Kozlowski. "It was born out of our deep relationships with the fashion industry, all developed with our four key pillars in mind which include fashion, beauty, technology and sustainability."

Notably, N4XT Experiences is also offering resources to participating designers, including help with castings, fittings, hair, makeup and nails, as well as marketing and production solutions. "We are making it more accessible for brands to participate in a fashion week than ever before and supporting our partners every step of the way," Kozlowski says. This year's event also marks the launch of a new initiative called LAFW Society, a nonprofit "dedicated to supporting emerging talent and creatives to bring their visions to life," per a press release. The events company will also support traveling press and buyers with accommodations and ground transportation (through partnerships with The West Hollywood Edition, Dream Hollywood and Mercedes).

Also new: the event will be held under one roof — NYA Studios in Hollywood — and comprise runway shows, presentations, film screenings, art exhibitions, pop-up shops, showrooms, dinners, cocktail receptions and more, "with opportunities for both the industry and consumers alike to engage," according to Kozlowski. Both upcoming and in-season collections will be shown.

Overall, it sounds like the new LAFW will veer away somewhat from the traditional fashion week format: "LAFW is continuing to receive a much-needed facelift from N4XT Experiences for season two under the new ownership and our vision celebrates the festivalization of fashion with a focus on entertainment where we will shine a spotlight on style and culture through live and digital touch points," Kozlowski explains. "This is the first time in history that L.A. Fashion Week has officially been recognized by the CFDA [as of 2022] in the same capacity as New York, London, Milan and Paris. We are rising to the occasion and defying expectations from our predecessors, by creating can't-miss moments that unite audiences and bring new communities together around brands we want to introduce."

There's no question that Los Angeles has become a bigger point of interest and priority for the global fashion industry: Chanel, Versace and Celine have all held runway shows here within the last 12 months, while brands like Gucci, Givenchy and Dior have unveiled new retail concepts. More and more fashion publications employ editors here (if only due to a sort of mass migration from NYC) and of course there are more celebrities, stylists and influencers per square foot here than anywhere else in the world. Plus, there are major American designers like Tom Ford (the person), Rodarte, Simon Miller and Staud that have always been based in Los Angeles, and others that have relocated their businesses here, like Harbison and Jonathan Simkhai. Kozlowski hopes he and his team will be a resource for all of the above.

"And as more international and domestic brands are looking to expand their businesses on the west coast, N4XT Experiences is here to help foster that movement and add value and infrastructure through LAFW and, now, LAFW Society."

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