Linda ImmediatoWe arrived back at Vibiana Saturday well into the all-day BoxEight Eco-Nouveau event which included spoken word, a couple of films and a music performance, around a few fashion shows celebrating all things eco chic. We made it just in time to be seated for Gary Harvey's show, or so we thought. What really happened was were held hostage. First, a movie started, it was about Antarctica and Global Warming, but we couldn't hear it from our seats, but the images were beautiful. Then, a chick came out on stage with an accoustic guitar. The mood in the crowd tensed, a woman with an acoustic guitar at an eco fashion show is not a good sign. We were tortured, she like a siren, a soft pretty voice, that carried with it some magical power that made us all sleepy and a few others a little irritated. (think Enya meets Baez). I think at 9 pm on a Saturday before the main show, there should have been something livlier, get the crowd amped to see recycled clothing. By the fourth song, the crowd around me were shifting uncomfortably in their seats. I heard one chick say to her plus one, “Maybe if we clap now, she'll stop.” Poor girl, she had a nice voice, and I'm sure her songs are really deep and someone somewhere is going to pull a knife on me for saying all this, but, it was boring. Charon, my plus one (read more about her here), snuck off to get us some wine. Thank god , because after the singing, a few chicks, practically naked, spray painted with sort of lizzard like skin slid and sort of writhed down the runway. It was the kind of thing a glass of wine was made for.
After a short little modern dance, fashion inspired routine, the ladies writhed back off the runway, and we were finally ready to see Gary Harvey's new line. Harvey, a former designer for Levi's, made a big splash at London Fashion Week earlier this year with his waste not want not collection of re-purposed vintage. All of his materials come from second hand clothing shops. It was the coolest thing I've seen, my favorites were the trench coat gown, a bustier with a bustle skirt made of London Fog-like trenchcoats.
the dress made out of old flannels
the nightie made of old nighties
Re-purposed laundry bags, newspapers, baseball jackets even , a wedding dress made from other wedding dresses.
(Charon with Harvey)
We snuck backstage to congratulate Harvey and he seemed genuinely surprised at the positive reaction he got from the LA Crowd. “When I design, I don't think about how a crowd will react, or think about who would or could wear it,” he said, “I just think about creating it.” Charon was so excited to be talking to him. She was wearing a vintage hand-embroidered tablecloth as a dress with batwing sleeves. Gary and Charon of the same, er, cloth. He spun her around, looked at her design, and said, “I might have to rip you off.”
Then Harvey (second from left in picture) was joined by designer Eduardo Lucero (left), BOXeight co-founder Pete Gurnz (second from right), and designer Louis Verdad (right).
Verdad admitted that he didn't really have a theme for his collection (see post below_, he thought more in terms of body parts, “open backs, and lots of leg,” he said. He told Charon not to tell anyone her dress was a table cloth. “But,” she said, “thats' the best part.”
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