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  1. Production & Strategy
  2. Strategy

Fashion Week's Creative Ideas Off the Runways

The clothes are supposed to be the focus, natch. But some of the coolest innovations took the form of invitations, cocktails, party themes, and strategic product placement.

October 18, 2006
Kohl’s Has Its Day at the Park
The Cond? Nast Media Group and Kohl’s department store took the "Transformation Nation" fall fashion show outside—all the way from Fashion Week HQ Culver City to the Santa Monica Pier, where the center of the amusement park’s Ferris wheel was covered with a sign bearing the Kohl’s logo. In keeping with the carnival theme, servers passed green apple martinis with caramel drizzled in swirls on the rim of each glass. Sugar Ray performed and DJ Pesce spun for the crowd, and partygoers nibbled on casual fare from Along Came Mary and wielded Whack-a-Mole mallets for prizes before heading out for the evening with gift bags containing two sweaters—available at Kohl’s, of course. Kingdom Entertainment produced the event, and BNC handled PR.

Shoes Show on Trees
At Gen Art’s ninth annual “Fresh Faces of Fashion” event, accessories designers displayed their wares for spring on imaginative tableaux whipped up with Jennifer Green of Genevieve Productions. For her footwear line Marcello Toshi Creazioni, designer Kerry Clarkson Valdivia constructed an indoor rock garden beneath a kind of pergola where shoes sprouted and dangled like exotic flowers. Valdivia draped burlap on top of the pergola and hung it with the shoes and upside-down silk roses in white and yellow. On the floor, the crew tidily arranged gravel in four squares outlined with pebbles. Atop the rocks, tree trunks and branches served as pedestals for the shoes, which are handmade in Peru. “I wanted to have an installation that was attention-getting and something you could go into,” Valdivia said. “There are two pathways intersecting in the middle so people would be invited in and could interact with the shoes.”

It’s in the Mail
Editors get so many blah postcards announcing fashion shows that it takes something really unique to get their attention. Two invitations got ours this time around: One was from Kushcush by Kerry Cushman, and it was folded origami-style into one of those contraptions junior-high-schoolers make to predict their futures. Flipping open the flaps, we discovered messages like, “Ouch! You’ll soon have a champagne headache and read about your dance moves on a celebrity blog,” and “Score! You work at a fierce magazine and your mean boss is out of town so you grab her fashion week invites and pretend to take show notes”—and also, “You’ll marry Jake Ryan.” Fabulous PR distributed the invitations, which arrived in little white boxes. The other cool invite that caught our eye was for the Meghan fashion show at Smashbox Studios and after-party at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. It was a mock letter confirming a guest’s stay at the fictitious “No-Tel Motel”—and arrived complete with a big gold room key, necessary for admission to the show.

Tequila Brand Pours Heavenly Sips
Gran Centenario served its tequila for the fashion flock in Culver City, providing specialty cocktails—all with heavenly names—at Smashbox. Cups of “Angel’s Dream” (tequila with white cranberry juice and vanilla), “Heavenly Ginger Angelita” (a traditional margarita with fresh ginger extract), and “Angel’s Heart” (tequila with pomegranate juice and rosemary) got showgoers pumped up—if not a little flushed—for the shows all week long. (Gran Centenario has been busy—it also placed its product in Sweet Charity at the Pantages Theatre, as it has already done in the same show on Broadway in New York, and sponsored the show’s opening night party at CineSpace on October 11. Full Picture is handling the brand’s PR.)

Smashbox Guests Go Mad for Plaid
Kicking off Fashion Week, the annual “Dressed to Kilt” tartan fashion show sponsored by Johnnie Walker and benefiting Friends of Scotland at Smashbox Studios attracted a good turnout of celebrities, some of whom paid homage to their own Scottish heritage. A full bagpipe band serenaded the crowd while the Right Honorable Jack McConnell, first minister of Scotland, took over duties for one of the honorary chairmen, Sir Sean Connery, who was working overseas. The models bounded down the runway to Scottish-theme music with every piece featuring a tartan or plaid flair. Guests dressed in their best plaid and tartan skirts, dresses, and scarves—a task made easier by the fact that plaid patterns have been appearing all over international runways.

—Alesandra Dubin, Irene Lacher, and Kim Serafin

Posted 10.18.06

Photos: Stefanie Keenan/Patrick McMullan. (Gen Art), WireImage.com (Kohl’s), Amanda Edwards/Getty Images (Gran Centenario), Mark Mainz/Getty Images (bagpipes)

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Kohl's put its logo in the middle of the Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier for its 'Transformation Nation' fall fashion show and party with the Cond? Nast Media Group.
Kohl's put its logo in the middle of the Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier for its "Transformation Nation" fall fashion show and party with the Cond? Nast Media Group.
At the Kohl’s event, candy apple-flavored cocktails kept with the carnival theme.
At the Kohl’s event, candy apple-flavored cocktails kept with the carnival theme.
At Gen Art’s event, shoes dangled from trees like exotic flowers.
At Gen Art’s event, shoes dangled from trees like exotic flowers.
The invitation for Kushcush by Kerry Cushman—folded origami-style into a contraption like junior high kids use to predict their futures—came in a little white box.
The invitation for Kushcush by Kerry Cushman—folded origami-style into a contraption like junior high kids use to predict their futures—came in a little white box.
Meghan’s invitation took the form of a mock letter confirming a guest’s stay in the fictitious “No-Tel Motel”—and came complete with a big gold room key, needed for admission to the show.
Meghan’s invitation took the form of a mock letter confirming a guest’s stay in the fictitious “No-Tel Motel”—and came complete with a big gold room key, needed for admission to the show.
Gran Centenario tequila served specialty cocktails with heavenly names.
Gran Centenario tequila served specialty cocktails with heavenly names.
Bagpipers played for the crowd at Smashbox for the “Dressed to Kilt” event.
Bagpipers played for the crowd at Smashbox for the “Dressed to Kilt” event.
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