LA Fashion Week — October 2005

In October 2005, Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles Fashion Week returned to Smashbox Studios in Culver City with the Spring 2006 collections, and the West Coast editorial team covered twelve of the week's designer shows. The twelve reviews are linked above: Antik Denim, Ashley Paige, Chan Luu, Juan Carlos Obando, Pegah Anvarian, Dina Bar-El, Deborah Linquist, Sue Wong, Karanina-Karanina, Naqada, Kevin Johnn and Ya-Ya.

The October 2005 reviews were written by Lynn Simmons of LynnEyestyle, LLC, Guest Editor — a different hand from the 2003 and 2004 seasons in this archive, and a more compact one: each review is a short, direct account of its collection, closing with the show's press contact. Each is kept complete below as the record of its show.

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

The Season in Brief

Denim ran through the week as Los Angeles's home fabric: Antik Denim's western cuts and signature pocket embroidery opened the covered shows, and Karanina built its relaxed casual looks on denim shorts, overalls and premier denim pants. Eveningwear held the week's other pole — Dina Bar-El's red carpet satin and silk gowns with black lace overlays, Sue Wong's thousand nights of dresses and big ball gowns, and Naqada's gala-ready black and white with teal and metallic touches.

Between the poles, the season's variety is the story: Ashley Paige's 1970s homage of macrame and beaded swimwear, Chan Luu's tone-on-tone textures in dusty oatmeal and beige, Deborah Linquist's mermaid-inspired bustiers in recycled scarves and hemp, Juan Carlos Obando's theatrical art-directed production, Pegah Anvarian's Jamaican-inspired bamboo knits, Kevin Johnn's equestrian Derby collection fresh from Project Runway, and Ya-Ya's easy prints that transition from day to night.

Reading the Season With Its Neighbors

Three of the week's names carry over from the October 2004 set in this archive — Pegah Anvarian, Sue Wong and the Karanina designers' denim peers — and several appear in the March 2005 set as well, which makes the three Los Angeles seasons readable as one continuous record: the same editorial project, three springs of collections, and a city's designers measured season over season. Each October 2005 review stands on its own garment-level facts, and the contacts carried at the foot of each review are part of its record.

About These Reviews

The reviews are brief by design: a paragraph or two of collection notes — fabrics, colors, silhouettes and standout pieces — rather than the longer narratives of the earlier seasons. Brevity has its own archival value: the facts a working editor chose to wire back from each show, unpadded, are exactly what a researcher needs first, and the authored framing around each review supplies the context the season's coverage assumes.

How to Use This Hub

Start with the two poles of the week — Antik Denim for the city's home fabric at its most embellished, and Sue Wong for special occasion dressing at its most lavish — then read across: Chan Luu and Ya-Ya for the week's hand-finished ease, Kevin Johnn and Juan Carlos Obando for its theater, and Deborah Linquist for its earliest environmental material choices. Each review names its show's press contact at its foot, a small period detail that maps how a working editor in 2005 would have followed up a collection: not through a website, but through the publicist named on the page.