California Apparel News

Los Angeles fashion designers are savvy and visionary, and they proved it at the Los Angeles Fashion Week shows.

But when it comes to the Web, such adjectives often do not apply. In our exploration of the designers featured on last week’s runways, we found just a handful have any sort of Web presence—and even fewer have developed Web sites of their own.

But, it’s not a totally barren cyberscape—some shining examples do exist.

To be clear, many of these designers can be found in some way on the Web. Type in a name on one of the major search engines, and results will pop up. The typical case is that you are directed to either a news-source site where the designer has been covered—such as California Apparel News’ www.apparelnews.net, Detour’s www.detour-mag.com, Vogue and W’s www.style.com or the Fashion Dish column’s www.fashiondish.com—or to a site where a group of designers have descriptive pages. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week’s www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.com, Little Black Dress’ www.lbdevents.com, Fashion Business Inc.’s www.fashionbizinc.org, Gen Art’s www.genart.com, SoWear’s www.sowear.com, and LA Showroom’s www.lashowroom.com are among the many sites that fit the bill.

Fashion Windows’ www.fashionwindows.com, somewhere between a news and community portal (but requiring a $4.95 monthly fee for full access), features the largest presence of designers who showed collections during Fashion Week. David Cardona, Elisa Jimenez, Rami Kashou, Sara Palacios, Terri King, Cornell Collins, Heatherette, Kate O’Connor, Ghost, and Jeremy Scott are some of the collections featured.

The news sites offer a critical picture of designers’ work, and the communal sites promote the fashion portal more than they do any individual designer.

We commend the designers who have developed their own sites and have taken the time to control their own Web promotions and presences. These are the “e-courant” designers:

bull; Trina Turk Online, www.trinaturk.com, has done the best job. The simple-yet-sophisticated site is aimed at the consumer. It does not offer online sales, but it does promote the Trina Turk Boutique in Palm Springs, Calif., as well as other stores that carry items from the line. The site presents currently stocked Spring merchandise along with a strong preview of Summer offerings that will start arriving in stores later this month. Superior navigation and sumptuous pastel backgrounds make this site a favorite.

bull; Grey Ant’s www.greyant.com does a similar job and features the stores that carry the collection. The site is a bit behind with its events page, though. At press time, the page asked viewers to stay tuned for the “upcoming” Los Angeles Fashion Week that just passed.

bull; Sue Wong’s site, www.suewong.com, is the most colorful of any we have seen. A store listing and a star listing, showcasing images of celebrities wearing Sue Wong clothing, are featured.

bull; Susana Mercedes’s www.susanamercedes.com is contained in a stark black, red and white space. Images show collections mostly from past Los Angeles Fashion Week runways. An online store is still “under construction.”

bull; David Tupaz’s site, www.davetupaz.noisybird.com, appears to be transitioning from an older “plain wrap”–style site, where everything is boxed in drop-shadow frames and odd background patterns, to a sophisticated Flash-animated site that presents the line with music and motion effects. The difference between the two schools of Web-site design is abrupt, but this work in progress gets the job done once you get past the dreadfully dated home page.

bull; Frankie B.’s site, www.frankieb.com, assaults you with a blast of jazzy rock music but offers a cool look at the line. Featured are an authorized store listing and a prominent link to its affiliated online store, www.bottomsupdirect.com.

bull; At the Ashley Paige site, www.ashleypaige.com, peace, love and bikinis are wellpromoted. The site puts an emphasis on showing the line and helping consumers locate stores. Also featured is a compelling section on environmental awareness. This is one of the most beautifully conceived sites we have seen.

bull; Designer Roxi Suger’s site presents her AngelRox line in a sensuous catalog at www.angelrox.com. Garments gently fade into view, and retail prices are displayed prominently. The site works to inform both wholesale and retail audiences.

bull; Rock & Republic’s www.rockandrepublic.com is powerfully minimal. A single page posts a strong statement mentioning stars who wear the brand, as well as enticing photos of the tight-fitting line.

All of these designer-specific sites perform well at two fundamental tasks: They inform increasingly Web-savvy consumers why they should visit designers’ stores and show collections away from the competition and as designers want them to be seen.

The Web is a powerful branding medium when harnessed properly, but the designers who realize this seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Fashion designers are skilled artists who are typically driven to control every detail of the work they create. Why it is that so many do not create their own sites—especially when the cost has become so minimal—has us bewildered.