LA Fashion Week kicks off with a blessing for peace and upcycling

Kicking off the new edition of LA Fashion Week, Los Angeles-based artist and movie director Tara Subkoff staged a performance show in Hollywood. In the Hole Gallery on North La Brea boulevard, opposite the Rick Owens boutique, 200 guests waited patiently for the opening show.

Organized in the exhibition room dedicated to Eric Yahnker’s fun drawings, Imitation of Christ’s show started with opera songs and dancing silhouettes. On stage, Subkoff then invited representatives of various religions and spiritual organizations to recite texts and songs, including a rabbi, a Christian minister, a Tibetan buddhist monk, a Hindu swami, a Muslim sufipoet and practitioner, all facing a Native American/indigenous flute player and a shaman.
 
Planned before the events in Israel and Palestine, the side-by-side presence of Rabbi Heather Miller and Muslim poet Najeeba Sweed was a touching moment, a symbol of peace at a time of dramatic events.

“The aim was to show that diversity in religion and spirituality is a gift. We can have a thread for peace and a way to connect,” said poet Najeeba Sweed. “It’s a beautiful story and a beautiful symbol to organize such a show in a world of fashion where diversity is so important. Los Angeles is also the perfect international city to spread a message of peace. I’ve been friends with Rabbi Heather Miller for 15 years. By being with each other, and taking care of each other, we can build more peace around the world.”

“We’re all here to represent love and peace, and also to care for the environment,” added Rabbi Heather Miller. “The idea of spreading such messages in such an artistic form is fabulous. We can show the world that religious communities can coexist and love beautifully, and all in creation and preciousness. The idea of upcycling fashion is a beautiful value to defend. That’s what we all do in our traditions, like the tallit I’m wearing tonight, which I’ve worn since I was a child, and which I got married in.”

The Imitation of a Christ’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection was showcased by dancers, while designers and artists began creating new pieces in a live performance. Tata Subkoff’s dancers wore upcycled and flowing, draped dresses, others wore tulle and mousseline. Children took to the stage, dancing round and round in tutus, and some pieces featured the dove of peace design.
 
At the end of the show, the designer asked all the guests to take an item of fast fashion clothing that had been thrown on the floor. “Please imitate this and make something yourself out of something someone else has thrown away, but that you love, and turn it into art with your own hands,” said Subkoff. “Join us in our attempt to stop consuming and start creating instead.”

Imitation of Christ is a conceptual art project and fashion label started by former American art students Matthew Damhave and Tara Subkoff, with Chloë Sevigny as creative director. The project initially began as an art collective, evolving into a fashion line made up of entirely upcycled pieces of clothing, which Subkoff and others hand-sewed.
 
First presented in Los Angeles in 2000, Imitation of Christ was staged in a Los Angeles subway station, where a 150-foot long escalator served as the runway. Regularly present at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week, Imitation of Christ continues, season after season, to display its activism in reaction to fast-fashion and climate change. The brand also capitalizes on the metaverse, having participated in the first Metaverse Fashion Week in 2022.

After the show guests were invited to celebrate the new edition of LA Fashion Week 2023 and the launch of LAFW Society at NYA Studios in Hollywood.

LAFW Society’s foundation will be supported by Paula Schneider, former CEO of American Apparel, and now president and CEO of Susan G.Komen, a philanthropic organization that supports the fight against breast cancer. LAFW Society and Susan G.Komen will host their first gala evening in 2024. LAFW Society also announced its partnership with Otis College of Art and Design, celebrating an exhibition of its best talents.
 
“Our business philosophy is very simple. LA deserves to have one of the greatest global fashions on the planet,” concluded Keith Abell, president of N4XT Experiences, the agency in charge of organizing LA Fashion Week. “New York has a Fashion Week, London, Paris and Milan have one. We couldn’t understand why LA didn’t have one ! A city the whole world is watching today. We think the time is now for LA to do this.”