Karina — LA Fashion Week, March 2005

Karina, by designers Kara Smith and Nina Firestone, presented a hippy-chic collection with a globally bohemian flair in March 2005: mosaic prints and vibrant colors intermixed with rich textures, ruffles and wraps. They were first-timers — and, in the review's judgment, created a natural highpoint amidst the more formalized shows.

The review below was filed during Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles Fashion Week, March 2005. Karina's page is the season's newcomer record: two young creators, one collection, and a verdict that placed them above the week's established formality.

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not photographs from this show.

Hippy-Chic, Globally Bohemian

The collection's language was print and texture: mosaics, saturated color, ruffles and wraps — the bohemian register that Los Angeles wears better than any other fashion capital, because the city's own wardrobe runs on it year-round. Against the week's suiting and structure, Karina's softness read as confidence rather than inexperience.

First-Timers at the Week

A fashion week's health is measured by its newcomers, and March 2005 had Karina in the role GenArt usually fills alone: proof that the calendar could still surprise. The two designers' highpoint verdict — delivered by the week's own editorial team, in two sentences of review — is the complete surviving record of the show, and it is kept exactly as filed.