Golden Needle Awards to Honor L.A. Designers

The Golden NeedleAwards will host a luncheon and runway show for Los Angeles’ burgeoning design scene on June 5 at The Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills.

One designer will be awarded an exclusive manufacturing contract managed by Flying Vie and Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

Up-and-coming designers at Sossy’s Originals, Babydol, Double Occupancy, Peter Lai Boutique, Renaissance XXI, Azada, Studio C and San Paredes will present several looks.

The Golden Needle Awards create a platform that showcases emerging design talent, said Mara Beltrami-New, the show’s producer. “By having the fashion industry endorse this event, we are recognizing the talent pool in Los Angeles and the need for creating an environment in which those designers can thrive,” she said.

Judges include members of the apparel industry as well as celebrities such as Mr. Blackwell, creator of the “Worst Dressed” list; Vivian Tellefsen, fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles; Gunther Shia, chief financial officer of the Coalition of Los Angeles Designers; Alison A. Nieder, executive editor of the California Apparel News; and Frances Harder, executive director of Fashion Business Inc. in Los Angeles.

A silent auction will be held after the fashion show. The event will also include a special display of the Jeran Hollywood Graffiti Gown—Fighting AIDS with Fashion, a gown that features the signatures of famous actresses including Katharine Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone and Bette Davis. The gown’s creators, Jerry Skeels and Randy McLaughlin, will serve as judges at the show and will receive the 2004 Golden Needle Humanitarian Award.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Thalians Mental Health Center at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the Associates for Breast & Prostate Cancer Studies at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Golden Needle Awards will take place at 10 a.m. on June 5 at The Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel. Tickets are $150.

For information, call (310) 487-7484 or (310) 278-4299. —Claudia Figueroa