Los Angeles Fashion Week Spring '05: Luis Diaz

Luis Diaz, who has spent years working as a patternmaker, got a taste of what it is like to be a fashion designer at his first Los Angeles runway show, presented Oct. 30 at P. Ka Bu, the venue created by designer Jose Angel for staging new talent.

Diaz, who was born in the Dominican Republic but has lived in Germany for 15 years, is enamored of leather. In his Spring 2005 collection, he used leather in all sorts of styles, from brown V-neck dresses to pink pantsuits to black leather pants.

“When I do my collection, I look to make the woman sexy and elegant,” he said after the show, held at the Blu Pinstripe Warehouse near downtown Los Angeles.

When not using leather, Diaz employed lightweight fabrics with floral patterns on feminine V-neck dresses and flirty skirts.

—Deborah Belgum