MADE LA
Made LA Festival Takes the Runway With Opening Ceremony, Snoop Dogg
The runways featured brands such as Opening Ceremony, the soundtrack was mostly hip-hop, and the backdrop was a market of trade show–like booths selling everything from T-shirts to expensive footwear.
It was Made LA, a festival that mixed fashion, music and retail. It took place June 9–10 at the edge of the LA Live entertainment compound in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets were sold for fashion shows where Opening Ceremony showed some modern cowgirl looks. Fans also saw hip-hop stars Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa perform and flex their fashion muscles. Other attractions were free to the public.
Made LA is a venture from fashion-show producers IMG and William Morris Endeavor. This is the second year for Made LA, which debuted last year. Other Made events are produced in New York City, Berlin and Sydney.
More than 30 booths were open for business at the stores section of the festival. Along with booths for car company Toyota, airline Etihad and cosmetics company Maybelline New York, independent fashion brands looked to make a splash at the event.
Sita Abellan, a model, DJ and friend of pop-star Rihanna, sold T-shirts and other looks under the Sita Abellan label. Using body-scanning technology, the San Francisco–headquartered label Cala offered customized clothing and showed looks that Khalifa was going to wear on stage the night of June 10.
Osklen, a Brazilian clothing company, ran a booth to show its eco-friendly looks for men and women, along with set pieces such as wet suits with bling and a custom surfboard. Kei Stanisiere, vice president of Osklen’s wholesale, said the booth’s purpose was to sell clothes and to introduce a clothing company to the United States. “We are testing the waters,” Stanisiere said. “We hope to open a retail store here in the future.”
In an events tent, Opening Ceremony showed its Fall 2017 styles in a show called “A Modern Western.” Looks included a varsity jacket with studs, a kimono with a scorpion graphic, shirts with gingham cuffs, cardigans with a raw-hemmed chiffon and a double-layer mesh tee. The show started on a kinetic note. Stuntwoman Zoë Bell performed martial arts–inspired choreography. Hip-hop hero RZA composed some original sounds for the show.
On the afternoon of June 11, Snoop Dogg served as the DJ and master of ceremonies for a runway event for the collaboration fashion line designed by the Joyrich label and his son Cordell Broadus, who formerly played football for the University of California–Los Angeles. The line, called Joyrich X Snoop Dogg, featured long-sleeve tees with the Snoop Dogg logo, parkas with a fur-like material bearing the blue and gold colors of UCLA, as well as sweat pants, hockey-style jerseys, hoodies and pajama-like bottoms and tops reminiscent of the pajamas that Snoop wore in the 1993 hit video “Gin & Juice.”
Many of the looks bore the numbers 1993, when the hip-hop star released Doggystyle, the celebrated album that made him a star. Models walked between set pieces of low-rider cars. At the end of the show, a joint was passed around by some of the models, fitting for a star who championed cannabis issues throughout his career.
Made LA ended with Khalifa’s set and displays of the styles the rapper put together with Cala and streetwear brand 424 and Pleasures.
