Fashion Week Takes San Diego

Twenty-six local and international designers converged on beautiful Broadway Pier from October 2-6 for Fashion Week San Diego to showcase their looks for pre-fall and spring/summer of 2014.

Only five years after its creation in 2008, Fashion Week San Diego has helped designers build their brands and move on to be successful at major fashion events like New York Fashion Week. Since 2012, Fashion Week San Diego has added twice as many designers and two more runway shows, bringing in more than 8 million media impressions last year, second only to Comic-Con. The winning designer of this year’s Fashion Week San Diego will receive a business package including a consultation with Mod Cloth, an online clothing company, and funding for future designs.

Fashion Week San Diego attracts much press and media for local designers, but despite its success locally, it has yet to reach the caliber of New York Fashion Week and other international shows. Fashion merchandising professor Nancy Murray believes that this is due to San Diego’s smaller market for high fashion clientele.

“In a smaller market like San Diego — since it is close to LA, many retailers just go to the LA market to purchase — often the focus is on promoting local designers and manufacturers,” Murray said.

The emerging trends expected for spring and summer include florals and whites, wide leg trousers and hats. California-based designers Dexter Simmons and Greenpacha focused on creating a message through their headpieces. Simmons created avant-garde eagle and hawk feather caps that gave a huntress feel to his pre-fall show. Greenpacha designers took a more natural approach, drawing inspiration from traditional Ecuadorian and Argentinian hat weaving and using pastel spring colors. The Diestra and Simmons collections had multiple all-white outfits which — according to PLNU senior Ian Crane, who worked at New York Fashion Week 2013 for the spring/summer 2014 shows — are huge trends for both fall and spring.

“White is already a pretty big [trend], and I see that continuing throughout fall, winter and spring,” said Crane, a Visual Arts major, who could not think of a single show that walked in New York, Milan, Paris or London that didn’t have at least one all-white look.

Other fall trends include feathers, leather and print. Dexter Simmons, Cecilian Aragon and Andre Soriano played with these concepts in their collections and used bold makeup and headpieces to communicate edgy, feminine looks. Simmons in particular created outfits that mixed grunge T-shirts with feminine snakeskin skirts and high-heeled boots. Looks that paired edgy leather and loud prints with feminine skirts and shoes were prevalent in both Simmons’s and Soriano’s collections. Fur vests and jackets were also trending on and off the runways with a heavy emphasis on neutral colors like grey, white and navy.

While it has had humble beginnings, the fashion designed and created in San Diego is on trend for fall and spring; expect to see these looks in international stores and the Caf Lane catwalk in the coming months.