By Karen Ostlund

HOLLYWOOD CA (Hollywood Today) 10/23/09 — Los Angeles fashionweek turns to October fashion month this year with its five different location and names:”Downtownlafashionweek” (MOCA Geffen Contemporary) “Fashion on Broadway” (615 S.Broadway) “Rock Fashion week” (Petersen Museum), Boxeight (1446 E. Washington) and California Market Center (110 E. 9th Street) .

Skingraft Design best known for their long elaborated handcrafted leatherwear and gowns,  presented a shorter and more light- weight pret-a-porter line for Spring 2010.

-” The inspiration is post-mortem Amelia Earhart (first female pilot over Atlantic Ocean) and the designs on the garments are birds in flight” explained designerteam Jonny Cota and Katie Kay.

You see shearling bomber jackets on top of  feathered silkblouses and aviator jodhpur pants on their runway. The shoulders are topped with metal jewels and Skingraft’s originally  avant-garde design and leather armor look has been softened.          The  new evening gowns are long, wide, theatrical with ter ring layered tulle, presented  with pilot assessories.

Krys n Jack design stands for Krysta Henry and Jacquetta O’Dell.They are the most controversy designerteam this season with a handcrafted  collection made of leather and wood.

-All garments are cut,dyed and cured by hand” they insure.

The ten piece collection “The Knockers” features leather patch dresses with chains,woodskirts with locks,  and a bride dress of metal bodice,layered wood and side strap.

Very unique and eye catching but hard to sit on.

Louis Verdad has got a new  favorite color for next season – cream – for his new  Spring 2010 line “Louver”.   He presented it opening night at  Downtownla Fashionweek at MOCA Geffen Contemporary Museum.

Louis explained in an earlier interview about his collection:

-”My inspiration is first Lady Michelle Obama,  with her sharp and crisp appearance”

The collection has a  French navy  clean look with its navy & cream jumpers – nautic bustier dresses-poplin shirts and nautic shorts.

His evening dresses are cream silk chiffon gowns,tuxedos and bustier dresses with mixed textures in gold:

There has been a big demand of evening gowns and cocktail dresses on the runway for this years’ runway presentations and

David Alexanders’ “Love Me If You Dare” collection is a one of them. He was one of the headliners at Los Angeles theatre during “Fashion On Broadway”.

He loves flashy noticable clothes with a touch of old classic Hollywood glamour and the 1920′s art deco era.

On his runway you see a lot of wild animal prints in form of snake blouses,dresses, bodysuits. and cobra commander skirts.

His armor sweaters and Mirage Dunes sequin dresses are very retro in eyecatching colors.

This years’ fashion month presentations will last until Gen Art conclude with “Fresh Faces In Fashion” ,October 29th at Petersen museum in Hollywood.They will be part of Rock Fashion week, originally planned to be held at Paramount Studios. Gen Art will showcase four new women lines:Leyendecker, , Rory Beca,  Valerj Pobega,  Seneca Rising and one mensline, MG Black.The evenings accessories  will be CC Skye,The Generic Man,Ludevine and Stampd LA in form of bags, shoes, jewerly and sneakers.For tickets look up genart.org.

LA’s Spring 2010 fashionshows  are located in smaller venues than earlier, and Downtownlafashionweek reminds you of a smaller version of Smashboxstudios, and  its new  sponsor are: Coca Cola,Tres Generaciones Tequila, Popchips, Footpetals, Glam Palm styling wands and Lincoln cars.

Lincoln  had their new cars on display and was introducing the  2010 Lincoln MKS and offered also testdriving.

There was  only disadvantage for many industry people,   no shuttle service provided in between the venues downtown.

The Gallery LA, one of the biggest outshows and known for their Ecotrendy lines, was located at Sunset Gower Studios  and had four new lines to present at their Spring 2010 fashionshow : TVK Swimwear by Nicole Hanriot featured one and two piece swimsuits in neon and seablue colors with black as understone,  in classic cut lines                                                                                                                               Urban Republic Clothing by Peter Rhima featured a unisex premium denim & leather line inspired by contemporary and urban aesthetics in earthy colors.URC was a originally a mens line only.                                                                                                                                     RAW 7 by Ofer Ashkenazy & Julien Chambon showed  “gothic chic” hand -schredded modal in shape of long dresses & tunics  with unfished borders..The colors grey, granit and black dominated this collection…                                                      Division E by Victoria Benmoshe keept a 70′s touch to her “comfy” long batic dresses, tops and jumpsuits in peach and granit grey.She is wellknown for her graphic  skull print  tee’s and tanks in grey and black.

Song and dance has turned to an important factor during the runway,  and

this month surprise performance was made by designer Jen Awad.She surprised  guests by  jamming with her rockband “The Great Entity” during her Spring 2010 presentation at Unknown Theatre in Hollywood.

Jen  was singing and playing rhytmguitar  on stage while her mannequins walked by in

fuchia ribbed silkdresses, multi-colored goddess gowns and crystallized mini dresses in striped satin.

Besides her rock’n roll influence to this collection,  it also has an oriental touch with its lucuma orange kimono tops and dresses with chiffon winged pockets and crystal detailing.

“This one’s on me” Jen Awad sings,  and that’s also the titel of her latest CD.

The outshows were many this year and they often conflicted with each other time schedule                                       .Samora Design was one of them and was located at Sunset Tower Hotel on Sunset Plaza.

-”The inspiration for this collection is a modern “Lawrence of Arabia” and the raw gutsiness of colonial Africa meets romance in Casablanca” says designer Samora Olayan.

She is based in Los Angeles since many years and known for her garments of luxurious fabrics including silk, chiffon,  linen, fine cotton, knits and textures of metallic threads.

Samora’s  “A Desert Memoir”  line features colors from the Moroccan market: cinnamon, cardamom and cumin.She has created a romantic  “desert style” look in  silk bell hem dresses,  pleated silk pants, safari jackets and jersey hoodies.

Sjobeck-the originally Swedish  contemporary Malibu line promised everything you see is 100% American made.              The designerteam Shelley Sjobeck, Jesseray Vasquez,  Lani Lupton,  and Garrett Gerson got help from a tribute rock band, “The Beach Toys” to launch their Spring 2010  line  called  “Back to the Beach” .The runway setup featured real beach sand,  and was presented at “Live On Sunset” flagship store in West Hollywood.The store is known for  its many fashion brands and it took over the space from Tower Records earlier this year.

The Beach Toys was playing  Beach Boys greatest tunes during the catwalk,  that featured female and male models wearing beach  clothes inspired from  the 1940′s. Garrett Gerson explained the idea for this line comes from “the time era when women borrowed mens shirts and pants to look cool and sexy”.                                                                        SjobeckMalibu continues to be a laidback luxury line of comfortable cotton slip over, slim pants and cashmere sweaters for both sexes for next season.