Los Angeles Fashion Week Names Head of Designer Relations and Location – WWD

Ever since new owners took over last year, Los Angeles Fashion Week has been going through an evolution.

Last October, a host of fashion shows, engaging seminars, educational talks, high-tech happenings and parties took place in Hollywood, whose geographic location lent a glamorous vibe to the events.  

But LAFW did not take place this past spring. Instead, the event’s organizers have been busy making sure the fall show is on track to be bigger and better.

Ciarra Pardo, president of LAFW and cofounder and chief creative officer of N4XT Experiences, which bought LAFW last year, said that Noah Kozlowski has been named vice president, head of designer relations. He will be responsible for securing designers for partnerships with LAFW, which will take place Oct. 19-22. Most recently, he was director, global designer relations and development at IMG, where he worked for seven years.

“Noah brings a strong vision, strategy, unparalleled résumé of experience and deep relationships in the designer community,” Pardo said.

Kozlowski said he is eager to roll up his sleeves and start work. “We’re having many exciting conversations about LAFW with designers and brands across all categories from around the world. We really see this as a fun opportunity for them to show what they like and give them a platform to launch it on,” he said. “We are addressing all categories. We are speaking with menswear brands, womenswear designers and with gender-fluid brands. We are also speaking with accessories brands, jewelry designers and then some non-traditional fashion brands.”

Last fall, the new owners of LAFW reimagined the runway shows and added seminars on beauty, business and creativity. The fashion shows were held at the Lighthouse ArtSpace on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that used to hold an Amoeba record store before the building was sold and used for immersive art installations about Vincent Van Gogh, King Tut and Frida Kahlo. Only about half the designers last October staged typical runway shows while others selected to present their collections via immersive experiences and parties during the four-day event.

In addition, seminars, fireside chats and panels were held at a nearby historic Art Deco building called Citizens News, once the home of a newspaper before it was acquired by the Relevant Group and refurbished to its old Hollywood glory as an event space also housing the popular Mother Wolf restaurant. Other LAFW events were held at a West Hollywood hotel.

Sponsors were largely from the technology and sustainability worlds. Those included Logitech, Bolt, Ray-Ban Stories, Mercedes-Benz of Los Angeles, Red Bear Winery and wellness-meets-real estate company Delos.

For October, LAFW is moving a few blocks away from its previous Hollywood locations to NYA Studios, formerly Goya Studios, which encompasses 55,000-square feet of space and will be able to hold all events under one roof. “It has a roof deck that oversees Hollywood. It has a full commercial kitchen. It has an actual Dolby theater where we are going to host some really fun fashion films,” Pardo said.

Going forward, Los Angeles Fashion Week will host runway shows only in the fall. In the spring, runway shows will be replaced with fashion-related happenings. “We can never compete with the other fashion weeks. What we’re building in L.A. has to be disruptive and a unique thing. Otherwise, it just won’t work,” Pardo explained. “We want to keep October focused on the celebration of fashion and the creatives the way we did last year. Spring will be focused on the b-to-b [business-to-business] version. How do we support these brands with solutions and talks of sustainability?  How do we introduce some of these brands who are looking to invest?”

In addition to LAFW, N4XT Experiences next year will be introducing a beauty festival in Los Angeles and New York as well as a gaming festival in New York.

Early last year, N4XT Experiences paid an undisclosed sum to purchase Los Angeles Fashion Week from Arthur Chipman, who trademarked the name Los Angeles Fashion Week and created a semi-annual, well-organized fashion event held since 2018 at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

But organizing an acclaimed Los Angeles Fashion Week with industry attendance has been hard as various versions of the event have come and gone. There have been indie fashion shows in offbeat locations organized by fashion designers as well as a five-year coordinated partnership between Smashbox Studios and IMG that ended in 2008.

The latest LAFW organizers are hoping an updated and more tech-focused strategy will work for years to come.