10 Things We Learned at Fashion's Night Out Los Angeles
Over the past few years, Fashion’s Night Out has become the industry’s favorite holiday and is celebrated from the U.S. to India. What began as a way to generate revenue and bring awareness to the stores has since grown into a city-wide party complete with DJs, champagne, and even acrobats. Standing as a sort of kick-off to New York Fashion Week, everyone is buzzed with ideas of catwalks and designer clothing and hopefully, inspired to buy. Here, in no particular order, are ten things we learned this year at Fashion’s Night Out Los Angeles.
1. BlackBerries are so last year. Up until recently the fashion industry has had a death grip on their Blackberries, refusing to give up the speedy email capabilities for a touch screen. Enter Instagram. Fashion’s Night Out was full of shoppers tweeting and Instagramming photos; in fact, the 3.1 Phillip Lim store had Printsamatic, which printed out any photos uploaded to Instagram that featured #31PhillipLimLA in the comment.
2. Champagne tastes better when it’s free. If there is one thing you could count on in every store, it was complimentary champagne (or an open bar). With the discounts offered, sometimes all it takes is a couple of glasses to get people to pull out their plastic.
3. People in the fashion industry actually eat. Although there were complimentary hors d’oeuvres or sweets in almost every boutique, the food trucks lining the blocks did not go unnoticed. Shoppers waited in line with no shame for sliders, pizza, and Sprinkles Cupcakes.
4. You only need to be on the list, when you’re not on the list. While most of the stores were open to the public (the more people that come in, the more people that spend money) there were private parties at a few locations.
5. People were buying. The crowd moved with an agenda: to hit as many spots as possible. Maybe it was for the complimentary drinks or maybe it was to for the sales, either way, there were shopping bags and lines at the cash registers, a good sign for the event’s overall objective.
6. Fred Segal is the new (unofficial) FNO Headquarters. Sure, The Beverly Center hosted a runway show and had celebrity appearances but the place to be was Fred Segal. The store and lot was packed with people and had everything from a live band to 3D Photo Sessions.
7. The Kardashians draw a crowd. We already knew that, but the line around the block to get into the new DASH store on Melrose just reinforces that fact.
8. DJ Booths replace the once popular photo booths. There have always been DJs at FNO, but this year you couldn’t walk into a boutique without seeing one (or two) spinning in the boutique’s best corner. Intermix even had Foster the People showing off their skills behind a mixer.
9. The Atlanta Housewives love L.A. too. NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta made an appearance at the Alice + Olivia boutique on Robertson Blvd. Followed by a film crew catching the action for the reality show, Leakes (looking fab) told us “These stilettoes are killing me.” That’s a Société Perrier exclusive.
10. When in doubt, always hire a car service. There were fender benders, traffic, and limited parking. Next year, we’re going to use UBER (there’s an app for that).
Photos by Photographer Allen Zaki
