Philadelphia Fashion Week, Day 1, Part 1

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Philadelphia Fashion Week, Day 1, Part 1

POSTED: Friday, October 9, 2009, 6:16 PM

Filed Under: Shopping Fashion

Inspired by the need to promote local boutiques and designers during the economic crisis, Michael Anderer, co-owner of Matthew Izzo, founded the first-ever Philadelphia Fashion Week (which we covered in this week's Agenda section). It's going down Thu.-Sat., Oct. 8-10 at the 23rd Street Armory (22 S. 23rd St., 215-783-3434), and Critical Mass sent Agenda editor Holly Otterbein and startern Julia West to report on the highfalutin scene.

Before we give praise where praise is due, we must say this: All you had in the way of facilities were Port-O-Potties, Philadelphia Fashion Week? Really? You weren't joking when you said you weren't trying to be anything like New York Fashion Week. Just playin' (mostly).

Alright, so now onto the good stuff. We'll show you a slideshow from each designer, and then give our individual critiques on it. The first designers to take to the stage were from Moore College of Art & Design.

Julia West: Art Institute and Philadelphia University: You have some seriously tough competition ahead of you, my friends. Moore owned it as they kicked off Philly Fashion Week with metallic, B-52s-meet-Earth Girls Are Easy, swimsuit-like outfits. There were also gladiator-inspired leather straps matched with soft white skirts. The dresses were stunning throughout this set, whether wispy in black or painted on in emerald. It was an accurate depiction of what is going on fashion-wise in Philadelphia, especially among the youngsters.

Holly Otterbein: Agreed. This made me proud (despite the fact that I am in no way affiliated with Moore, nor do I even know anyone there. Hm. But I'm from Philly and so are they!) My favorite look was the sexy/dorky librarian outfit, with big '80s glasses, a poofy Seinfeld shirt (it worked) and a mustard skirt. I also dug the masked girls in swimsuit-like pieces at the beginning. Only problem was, we didn't know who the individual designers were because there wasn't an MC announcing them for this group set. Bummer.

Then came Palmieri Jeans:

JW: The jeans are well-fitted and slim all the way through on the ladies, and loose in the leg on the guys, but sit nicely on the hipbones. They have a slight sheen to them, and it looks like the Palmieri signature is colored piping down the outside seam. There were plenty of cute hoodies for girls, and body-hugging, long-sleeve tees for guys. It had a street feel that I would have expected to see at Friday night's show, but it was a nice break from the abundance of hipster clothing on the runway.

HO: This set came off as a wee bit drab at first, compared to the high-minded art schoolers' designs. In regards to the overabundance of men's clothing in this line, Julia whispered to me during the show, "I'm so not interested in male fashion." Which I can agree with to an extent ' I am, however, interested in male models. Ahem. I also couldn't disagree with the perfect-fitting women's straight leg jeans, which managed to be high-waisted without looking too retro or Mom-ish.

Click the jump to see what we thought of Kill City and Wrath Arcane.

Kill City was up next:

JW: Super sweet, high-end hipster stuff here. No ironic "World's Greatest Grandpa" tees. Skinny jeans, yes, but paired with perfectly tailored, hooded vests, not a PBR-stained '70s vest from the Goodwill. There were great tees, which were cropped for women and fitted for the men. Saw some great flannel shirts and acid-washed jeans, too. Their fitted jackets may have been their strongest pieces in this set.

HO: I liked the flannel on the guys, which was matched with big ol' burly boots and no-joke jeans. On the girls, the flannel only seemed to work when paired with something more feminine, like tights and knee-high boots, instead of dark pants. The super-soft, worn basic white tees were also something American Apparel fans would die for.

And last, for now, is Wrath Arcane:

JW: This was an interesting mix. It was like J. Crew started hanging with the a rough crowd and getting wasted at punk shows. Sometimes the pieces felt un-ironically preppy, and then the very next outfit would surprise you with the amount of skin shown, or the contrast of tight jeans and floppy boots ' which were just everywhere. So many boots. Boots, boots, boots.

HO: I like these boots, I like these jeans ' OMG, did a model just flash his abs at us? Like purposefully lift up his shirt, and look us devilishly in the eyes, like he was a teenage girl at senior week? I'm going to have to get back to you on this designer. I'm overwhelmed.

Check back later in the day on Critical Mass for our critique of the last three designers, as well as photos of attendees at Philadelphia Fashion Week.

Anonymous

Posted 2009-10-22 21:17:09

Philadelphia FLOP Week was a HUGE disappointment. Upon arriving to the event, I found myself immediately apprehensive after I saw how the "red carpet" was a small, shoddy, and semi-amusing red throw rug with a PHL-FSN WK backdrop behind it. I did not find the location appealing nor comfortable with the lack of seating for the shows and very warm temperature inside the church. An amusing part of the event was when entering to get your special "all access" neck tag, there were about 12 girls sitting there (looked like students) that blankly judged you while they checked your name off, which is always a welcoming gesture. I asked two of these girls questions where they just directed me to someone else who had no idea of what was going on. The vendors that were inside were bizarre, almost flea-market like, with sharp prices and nothing very "fashion" forward to offer. The event in general did not seem to be put together by professionals, but rather by students, or someone else that obviously had inexperience with holding large events. The food was cold and tacky with stale bread and cold hamburger meat for sliders, and drinks out of pitchers.The bar looked like a poorly put together clearance IKEA item that served mediocre drinks from bartenders who looked rather confused and/or flustered running around in their circle of bar space.

The footage of the event, including the main website and photo's taken shown on varying websites and newspapers should be considered false advertisement.

It is a bold thing to make Philadelphia Fashion Week come to life, in which it did... sort of. Between the scant seating, rude or clueless people running the event, and sauna-like temperatures it was a trifecta of dissapointment and dissatisfaction. I love the city of Philadelphia and believe that it is one of those cities that people overlook, especially when it comes to fashion.

Philadelphia needs an apology from this event or a promise to try to not make the event look like, frankly, such a joke, for next year.

Anonymous

Posted 2009-10-22 21:20:34

Philadelphia Fashion "Weak" was a HUGE disappointment. Upon arriving to the event, I found myself immediately apprehensive after I saw how the "red carpet" was a small, shoddy, and semi-amusing red throw rug with a PHL-FSN WK backdrop behind it. I did not find the location appealing nor comfortable with the lack of seating for the shows and very warm temperature inside the church. An amusing part of the event was when entering to get your special "all access" neck tag, there were about 12 girls sitting there (looked like students) that blankly judged you while they checked your name off, which is always a welcoming gesture. I asked two of these girls questions where they just directed me to someone else who had no idea of what was going on. The vendors that were inside were bizarre, almost flea-market like, with sharp prices and nothing very "fashion" forward to offer. The event in general did not seem to be put together by professionals, but rather by students, or someone else that obviously had inexperience with holding large events. The food was cold and tacky with stale bread and cold hamburger meat for sliders, and drinks out of pitchers.The bar looked like a poorly put together clearance IKEA item that served mediocre drinks from bartenders who looked rather confused and/or flustered running around in their circle of bar space.

The footage of the event, including the main website and photo's taken shown on varying websites and newspapers should be considered false advertisement.

Philadelphia needs an apology from this event or a promise to try to not make the event look like, frankly, such a joke, for next year.

P.S.- There were porto-potties. Enough said.

Posted by Holly Otterbein @ 6:16 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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