Although an unlikely fashion plate, Thomas Edison maintained an outlook on life that strikes a chord with the production efforts of Fashion Week El Paseo. “Having a vision for what you want is not enough,” he said. “Vision without execution is hallucination.”
Hatched in 2006 by Palm Springs Life to showcase stores on El Paseo, Fashion Week has evolved from modest, desert-centric beginnings to attract more than 14,000 guests in its eight-day run and become the largest consumer fashion event in the country. That first year, we realized people had to wait three to six months after seeing fashions on the runway to get their hands on the latest trends. So, we sought to deliver current styles in as short a time as possible.
• For ticket information , visit fashionweekelpaseo.com.
We began with an El Paseo Night show featuring 10 stores, a few generous restaurants that catered the event, and about 250 attendees eager to see what we were up to in the 30-by-80-foot tent on Larkspur Lane.
Over the years, we have welcomed designers from faraway places, diversified our fashions, and initiated a VIP Diva program that affords spectators premium seating and access to other exclusive events.
The designers present their collections, then the following day stay to mingle with guests and vend their work at trunk shows. Our volunteers have helped us host more than 1,000 guests each evening; many volunteers have been mentored by our team and are well on their way to successful careers in event planning and fashion. We have teamed up with numerous nonprofits to support the advancement of our community. Scholarships have been provided to Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising students as well as to the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YASIN CHAUDHRY
A gown by FIDM designer Nancy Elizabeth Hennessey.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YASIN CHAUDHRY
Off the runway, preshow reception parties have become the place to see and be seen, with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, DJs, and live entertainment.
It has been a long journey that continually tests our mettle for execution and our passion for giving guests more fashion, more exciting ancillary events, and more fun. And it is no hallucination.
See you under the big white tent.
did you know?
Our shows this year include fashions from an Oscar-winning costume designer, a TV celebrity designer, a local designer, a designer who owns a textile museum in London, two designers who will have recently shown in Paris, and a designer who was a street artist.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANY CLARK
Project Runway designers fit and primp models backstage.
BY THE NUMBERS
14 Years of Fashion Week El Paseo
78,840
Square footage of the Fashion Week campus
1,200
Approximate number of seats
100
Feet of runway
50
Front-row Divas (a second row has been added to meet demand)
240
Models for eight days of shows (2018)
31
Average distance in miles walked by models on the runway
840
Approximate number of looks shown throughout the week
30
Hair and makeup artists backstage
150
Volunteers, age 16 to 80-something
200
Approximate number of designers from around the world who have participated since Fashion Week El Paseo’s inception