After the partnership between Smashbox and IMG dissolved last season, it left a vacancy for a semi-official host of Los Angeles Fashion Week. One contender, BoxEight, stepped in to stage a collection of events and shows—called BoxEight Fashion Week—which took over the opulent and historic Los Angeles Theatre for three days this past weekend.
“We ran two different runways, so it allowed us to produce shows every hour. The venue is huge, it allowed us to bring over 3,000 people per day,” said BoxEight founder Peter Gurnz. The runways were set up in the theater section and the ground floor of the building, and 20 designers showed their collections. A lounge with red and white seating took over one floor of the venue as well.
Designers were required to pay a registration fee. “The economy is tight and there’s no sponsorships available. We went into partnerships with various production companies to keep costs down, so we listed them as sponsors even though they’re technically vendors,” Gurnz continued. Organizers managed to bring aboard a few vendors as sponsors, including Vox Entertainment and the venue itself.
In addition to BoxEight Fashion Week, other events swirling around the hodgepodge L.A. Fashion Week calendar include Downtown L.A. Fashion Week, which will host an event at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA today, followed by City of Los Angeles Fashion Week (not officially associated with the city), which will put on a series of events this weekend, leading up to L.A. Market Week.
