Heatherette by Richie Rich — LA Fashion Week, April 2003
A Los Angeles fashion week record from April 2003 — the Heatherette show by Richie Rich at LA Fashion Week in April 2003, kept as the historical record.
As to be expected, the chaotic backstage sideshow was the show at Heatherette's April 2003 event: personality models including Nicky Hilton, poster boys, psychedelic Mohawks, and cameras drawn like bubblegum to a stiletto. Then Hello Kitty took her romp down the runway, followed by forty Hollywood icon-inspired ensembles.
The report below was written from the show by Debra Stevenson of The Skyline Studios, the West Coast Bureau for Apparel Search, during the April 2003 LA Fashion Week — the week's pop spectacle, preserved in full.
Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not photographs from this show.
Forty Ensembles of Pure 80's
The collection's references were worn openly: a Whiskey-a-go-go tank, Angelyne corvette leggings, a color palette poured from a box of Good N Plenty candies and drawn directly from what the review calls Barbie the acid years. Announcements by Kate Roberts and Jack Osbourne kept the show in show-business territory, and the finale — Amanda Lepore escorting two little cherubs down the catwalk for the final bows — was pure LaChapelle staging.
The Week's Camp Counterweight
Every fashion week needs its release valve, and in April 2003 Heatherette was LA's: where Peter Cohen offered severe chic and Eduardo Lucero offered couture polish, Richie Rich offered a flashback frenzy that ended with the star-studded audience following the paparazzi circus up to Hollywood Boulevard for a raucous, campy after-party. The review's verdict — the ultimate up-yours feel-good show — is the record of a label whose entertainment value was the point.
Heatherette's place in the week was deliberate programming, whether or not anyone planned it that way: the April 2003 calendar needed a show that treated celebrity, camp and club culture as fashion itself, and Richie Rich — a creature of New York nightlife transplanted into the LA tents — supplied it. The report's energy on the page is the energy that was in the room.
The Review
As to be expected, the chaotic backstage sideshow was THE show for this wacky event. An entourage of personality models including Nicky Hilton and a bevy of beefcake poster boys drew ogling cameras like bubblegum to a stiletto while models groomed their psychedelic Mohawks. After announcements by Kate Roberts and Jack Osbourne, Hello Kittie took her romp down the runway followed by 40 Hollywood icon-inspired ensembles, like Whiskey-a-go-go tank and Angelyne corvette leggings.
The finale was pure LaChapelle as Amanda Lepore, wearing nothing but adhesive Nippies and glitter, escorted 2 little cherubs down the catwalk for final bows. The mood was pure 80's, the color palette poured from a box of Good N Plenty candies and drew directly from Barbie the acid years! This was the ultimate up-yours feel-good show which stirred the star-studded audience into a flashback frenzy and inspired them all to follow the paparazzi circus up to Hollywood Boulevard for a raucous, campy after party. Reported by Debra Stevenson, The Skyline Studios/west Coast Bureau for Apparel Search.
Photos
Common Questions
Who designed the Heatherette show in April 2003?
Richie Rich — Heatherette's show at LA Fashion Week in April 2003, announced by Kate Roberts and Jack Osbourne.
What walked at the Heatherette show?
Forty Hollywood icon-inspired ensembles in a Good N Plenty candy palette, opened by Hello Kitty's romp down the runway and closed by Amanda Lepore's finale with two cherubs.
Who appeared in the Heatherette show?
Personality models including Nicky Hilton, with Amanda Lepore in the finale; the audience followed the paparazzi circus to a Hollywood Boulevard after-party.