Guests at Gen Art’s New Garde pre-Fashion Week show had the opportunity to consider more than designer garments at the March 7 event, which featured the fall collections of up-and-coming Angeleno designers JMary, Jesse Kamm, and Les Sang Des Betes by Trang Chau at the Park Plaza Hotel. The arts and entertainment organization’s vice president of events, Elizabeth Shaffer, took advantage of the annual show’s nontraditional format—where staged vignettes take the place of customary runways—as a means of showcasing event sponsor Botox and its less-advertised capabilities.
“I’ve produced events for the past 12 years, and in the last three I’ve definitely noticed that sponsors are looking more and more for real customization, where [their involvement] is not just plug-and-play but where it is really creative and different and a lot of thought has gone into it,” Shaffer says. “Our audience is pretty savvy, so we try to come up with on-site activation where [guests] are interacting or learning about a product, but they don’t necessarily know they are.”For Friday night’s event, that meant Shaffer created a stagelike set for Botox that was in keeping with the designer installations, and visually conveyed the product’s lesser-known function: preventing excessive sweating. Three models stood in clear stalls under Botox-logoed umbrellas that kept them dry—get it?—as recycled water showered down upon them.
The production behind the Botox display did indeed lend it a look as smart and stylish the other sets, which varied from an M.C. Escher-esque collection of interlocking staircases and archways for the Le Sang des Betes vignette and an out-of-the-wild appearance for Jesse Kamm’s tented environment, which was covered with dry grass mats and decorated with stuffed animals like an albino peacock and a small crocodile, as well as throw pillows made from the fabric featured in Kamm’s collection.
“I’ve produced events for the past 12 years, and in the last three I’ve definitely noticed that sponsors are looking more and more for real customization, where [their involvement] is not just plug-and-play but where it is really creative and different and a lot of thought has gone into it,” Shaffer says. “Our audience is pretty savvy, so we try to come up with on-site activation where [guests] are interacting or learning about a product, but they don’t necessarily know they are.”For Friday night’s event, that meant Shaffer created a stagelike set for Botox that was in keeping with the designer installations, and visually conveyed the product’s lesser-known function: preventing excessive sweating. Three models stood in clear stalls under Botox-logoed umbrellas that kept them dry—get it?—as recycled water showered down upon them.
The production behind the Botox display did indeed lend it a look as smart and stylish the other sets, which varied from an M.C. Escher-esque collection of interlocking staircases and archways for the Le Sang des Betes vignette and an out-of-the-wild appearance for Jesse Kamm’s tented environment, which was covered with dry grass mats and decorated with stuffed animals like an albino peacock and a small crocodile, as well as throw pillows made from the fabric featured in Kamm’s collection.
Gen Art's fifth annual New Garde fashion show
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
The Botox name appeared in signage for designer vignettes.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
Keith Greco put together an assorment of stairways and archways for the Les Sang des Betes vignette.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
Models posed under archways in the Le Sang des Betes installation.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
Models stood still on a 16-foot rotating turntable at the JMary installation.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
Purple lighting dominated the Botox display.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
Event sponsor Acura had a brand specialist available to discuss car features with guests.
Photo: Brian Lindensmith/Patrick McMullan
