Los Angeles Fashion Week Fall 2001: Jared Gold
Every day is Halloween for designer Jared Gold, who, on April Fool’s Day, presented his frightfully unusual Fall fashions at Harlem Place Alley. The space is the brainchild of real estate developer Tom Gilmore, who owns the adjacent buildings, and plans to open restaurants and retail shops along the alley. The towering brown walls that loom over the colorless asphalt floor provided a picture-perfect backdrop for the show. Many of the styles, which would blend in perfectly on the sets of any film by Tim Burton, were accessorized with horrifying masks with teeth misplaced or other disfigurements of high fashion. Even the goodie bags placed on each seat were small versions of trick-or-treat bags filled with a variety of candies. The models did an excellent job of displaying the fashions without tripping and falling over what was an unplanned obstacle course on the ground—puddles and potholes dotted the cement runway. The garments were a mixed-media avant-garde collection of vintage styling with a macabre edge. The Iowa-born designer’s offerings ranged from a belle eacute;poque-inspired striped dress to ’80s-inspired fleece tops with dolman sleeves. Several pieces were silk-screened with images reminiscent of turn-of-the-century illustrations. Others were dipped in black dye or embellished with laser-cut appliqueacute;s. The vivid colors ranged from deep burgundy to flat pink—perfect for an October night on the underside of town—or an April afternoon in downtown L.A. —Darryl James
