Le Frenchlab's partnership with cool-kid boutique The Well revealed the next class of emerging cult-fave designers and artists.
Le Frenchlab welcomed over 300 guests at the FRE(n)SH Los Angeles Fashion Week event Friday night, March 13th, 2015 at The Well. Sponsors included T.U.K. Shoes, ZICO© Premium Coconut Water, Clover Juice, wet n wild cosmetics, M. Steves Skincare.
French influence is definitely upping the cool factor in fashion for Los Angeles. Hailing from Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergne, France), Creative Director Emmanuelle Rienda is back to launch her fashion incubator and artist collective, Le Frenchlab. The concept showroom comes after years of hard work as a french culture curator and entrepreneur, and although her own work has been featured throughout Paris and in magazines like Elle and Glamour, her latest project is all about the work of others. For Los Angeles Fashion Week, Rienda involves an elite team of creatives eager to execute the vision. "My aim is to curate, present and establish French creatives in the United States and develop concepts that highlight emerging creatives with a common DNA in order to successfully promote their art in the vibrant American fashion, music and art worlds."
After an industry meet and greet, the 7:30pm fashion show opened with male models and avant-garde French designer Atelier Brume, implementing a vision of sophistication and strength in an elegant, progressive garment. Distressed fabrics and exaggerated silhouettes for a bleak take on urbanwear. DNM Pieces, Le Laboratoire, a collection of sophisticated basics inspired by contemporary architecture.
Female models walked for EON Paris, designed by Lisa Cameron, a previous assistant to Alexander Wang, Jean Paul Gaultier, Martin Margiela and Gaspard Yurkievich - a promising Parisian, creative, ready-to-wear brand, which offers a high quality collection with minimalist and geometrical lines - and Chloé Trujillo (wife of METALLICA Bassist Robert Trujillo), an energy loaded scarves collection for body and soul! The high-quality silk scarves are a true art work and impressed with their poetic and colorful compositions.
The casting included fresh faces from high fashion modeling agency Photogenics Los Angeles. Custom runway music was composed by Sofia Hultquist - Founder of Drum & Lace - an audio development company that creates custom content and sound environments by uniting two of societies most creative forces- music and fashion. Runway makeup provided by award-winning Vlada Fomenko Haggerty. Her work was published internationally in Harper's Bazaar Ukraine, Like a Lion (Australia), Story (Ukraine), HOLE (Germany), WHERE (USA), Elegant Magazine, Elegant Ink, Fuse, Brink, Dark Beauty Magazine, Kaiouti Mag, Today's Bride and Jute Magazine.
The event also features a visual installation by special guest Guillaume Wolf: French creative icon, former Art Director at French Vogue, designer of the brand image of Parisian superstore Colette, and collaborator with luxury brands including Lucien Pellat-Finet and Isabel Marant. He is now living in Los Angeles and teaches at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In the event curated by LE FRENCHLAB he presented two new art videos created part of The Process Space initiative: Time Travel Primer (2015), a visual allegory about time, and You Live A Good Lie (2015), a collaboration with performance artist Kayla Tange.
A musical performance took place at 8pm. DJ Coco Disco and katXX kicked off the after party along with a digital photography display by Kristy Benjamin. A Los Angeles native involved in the fashion & entertainment industries since a young age, Kristy has put a strong focus in her work on Independent Designers. She was directly involved with LE FRENCHLAB since meeting Emmanuelle Rienda on a photoshoot in 2014. She promises to start French lessons soon. "LE FRENCHLAB is something I believe in being so much on the forefront of really bringing something new and fresh to the Los Angeles fashion scene, I am proud to be an American member of this outstanding French collective. "
Followed by performance by Franco-American singer-songwriter Naomi Greene, whom offered a powerful scenic presence with mesmerizing rawness and expressivity. Her alternative folk/rock songs show traces of interests in jazz, experimental sounds, and operatic fantasy. Whether on harp or electric guitar, her elegant simplicity catapults her remorseless yet compassionate lyrics straight to the heart of those who hear her.
Sinner Sinners a forceful punk-influenced rock n’ roll out of the controlled masses, closed the nigh with an energetic set. “Sinners Sinners arrived from France to California 4 years ago, but they have already become one of the loudest punk sensations of Los Angeles.” Rolling Stone Magazine
Notable attendees included ACNE, Racked LA, LA Weekly, Nylon, No3 Magazine, JustFab, Forever 21, French Consulate and more.
