The way it works is, the brass at the IIDA assigns the different involved firms a decade, and then they have the "fashion grab". This is where the girls from the firms line up before a huge pile of random swatches of fabric; this thing is like thirty feet long, six feet wide and piled three feet high. The idea is that the fabric be used to create either one or a pair of outfits reflective of the decade assigned them. The fashion grab is sprint, a nearly violent crush of girls running over each other to snag the fabric of their choice. I wasn't there, but I got to see some footage, and in a fraction of a second of the melee they played as a montage I saw Corrie hurdling some chick to get to the fabric she wanted.
Her firm's decade was the 1890s, and after a few proposals, I was left out of the churning design process. That wasn't the worst thing ever.
At the event itself I was to get the same unveiling of their outfit as everybody else. Outside was interesting, as Corrie needed to convince the ladies that I was the recipient of an extra ticket from a vendor that does business with the myriad firms that are involved with contest/show.
Inside I used my one drink ticket for a Newcastle, sampled some of the appetizers, and watched the event hall fill up. I began to notice the demographics of the attendees: probably 650 people at this sold out event; probably 600 were women; of the 50 or so guys, probably 10 were straight, and maybe only one or two were single.
Here's a shot of the runway in the moody blue and purple light that bathed everything:
In that picture you can see the spots where the judges sat and took their notes.
A women wearing pink leggings on both her legs and forearms who seemed to be in charge of the event, or at least the public face of the organizers, came out and spoke about the show over the years, about how it has morphed into this Orange County phenomena...she had a few annoying habits, not least of which was her tacit understanding of a world where Orange County is the center of the universe, and everything outside of it is irrelevant. Listening to her you get the feeling that she feels the same way about Santa Ana and Anaheim, two spots that are as much the OC as Alisa Viejo and Newport Beach. In any case, she also had the habit of pronouncing it "hot coach-er".
So, I was tasked with filming Corrie's firm's outfit, which is why the only representation I'll have here will be a group picture. This next picture was one of the outfits from the '70s, and this crew used stilts! The outfits were pedestrian maybe, but they seemed to use a large percentage of the fabric from the grab--a rule not everyone adhered to--and they stretched naturally down to the floor. The gentleman was obviously more comfortable on the stilts.
Here's a group picture, as they all tried to return to the stage at once for one last walk down the runway. Corrie's firm's outfit and model is just to the right of center sporting a huge hat.
After that, the firms left the staging area to re-up on wine, and the second phase started; a design competition for students of nearby schools. It was here when I went upstairs to get another view of the scene. You can see how well the event was attended.
Corrie's firm lost out to Ginsler, a huge and famous firm that put more resources towards this contest/show than pretty much any other firm could or would, so, there you go.
Like a few other things in my life (Yankee championship parade; Bourbon St for Halloween; Madama Butterfly) I can say I've done--gone to a fashion show--without necessarily having to do again.
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