Last night Cat headed out to the Slice party, which was launching the new modeling agency Fetch 87. The show was fine, the girls were pretty, and there were a lot of familiar faces in the audience, so a good time was had. However, the fashion was a repeat of what was on the I heART Fashion runway last Friday, and that was a repeat of what was shown at another event a few weeks before that. Equillibrium Clothing and Potential Fashions were the presenting designers, and while Cat’s a huge fan of both, there’s only so many times you can see the same outfit before you get a little jaded.
It seems that in the past six months a fashion component has become de rigueur at every event in town; nothing can happen without hot chicks on a runway. All of the support for Denver’s burgeoning fashion industry has been great, but it’s burning through the designers – and audiences. The general public isn’t going to get excited to come out and see the same people trotting the same outfits down the runway.
Potential Fashions, Equillibrium and The Fabric Lab have all have risen to the occasion and built awareness of themselves and Denver fashion by doing all these shows, but they need a break. They simply don’t have the time to put together a new collection – or even a few new outfits – when there’s an event every week. And not always great events. Some promoters have put on beautiful shows that respected the talent and were a testament to Denver; others have just used the designers to push their club night and turned out half-baked “spectacles.”
Denver’s at the next phase of its evolution. Five years ago, nobody even knew there was fashion in Denver. Now, the overexposure could kill all the good will and buzz that has been built. The allure of fashion has always been, to some extent, that it’s unattainable, mystical, something you dream about. So designers need time to design, to create, think, be fabulous and rejuvenated so that they can turn out new collections.
The normal fashion cycle is Spring, Fall, Resort and now Pre-Summer. That’s four shows a year that the international names are executing – not two a month. And while we can probably have a few more than that, it’s time to start thinking about raising the production value, having quality over quantity.
Or, having some of the emerging labels, like BrainChild Apparel, step up and start doing the weekly and monthly shows. That raises their profile and brings new life to the runway while satiating the market desire for fashion. It also frees up the more established labels to sit back and think about where they’re going next. Doing this in phases helps grow everyone.
In fact, at Slice, Cat talked to Deb Henriksen of Equillibrium and Tricia Hoke and Kymberly Robertson of Potential Fashions, and they were expressing the same sentiments. None of them are planning on doing another show until they have a new collection to present. Something that’s going to rock our worlds.
Cat can’t wait.
