I can not believe it is already the middle of the week and Austin is already in the midst of Austin Fashion week. If you are in the area I bet there are still tickets to be had for the great events happening for the emerging fashion scene out there. As you may or may not know, our Juliedarling has relocated to to Austin so if you see her make sure you say hi! Keep reading all the details below, there is a chance to a $5000 shopping spree. WOW! To see a schedule of events click here.

Austin Fashion Week

July 13-19, 2009

Austin Fashion Week is a week-long series of fashion events hosted by participating boutiques and salons.

During Austin Fashion Week, check out Austin designers’ work in gallery formats within each boutique and salon. Enjoy the work, get exposed to new up-and-coming labels coming from Central Texas. Additionally, surf the Austin Fashion Week website to check out the latest and greatest from Austin photographers, hair stylists, models and makeup artists.

Also, be sure you check out each participants’ work and VOTE for your favorites to win Austin Fashion Awards.

Don’t forget to SHOP! Buy a Passport to Fashion to receive 10% off all of your purchases and get a chance to win a $5000 SHOPPING SPREE every time you visit a new boutique or salon!

Austin Fashion Awards

July 19, 2009; 5:30 pm

Location: Michael & Susan Dell Hall at Long Center

Celebrate a night of fashion and music in style. The Long Center will be converted into Austin’s most over-the-top red carpet event honoring the best of the best in the local fashion industry.

Lineup Includes:
The DJ stylings of Brooklyn’s Mike Relm. Austin’s own and newest Hollywood Records sensation Alpha Rev.
The most fashionable band in Austin: Octopus Project will close the night before the Austin Fashion Awards After Party.
We’ll also welcome Austin’s biggest Rising Stars: Designers from the University of Texas Fashion Design school and the hottest up-and-comers The Soldier Thread and Ume.
Not to mention we’ll be revealing the winners of the first-ever Austin Fashion Awards and crowning the first Rising Star in the Designer Launch Program.

Tickets are just $43. Buy them here.

Rebel Without A Cause

Who said rock n’ roll was dead? Go shopping and chances are you’ll find some form-fitting clothing with fun and funky detailing that will have even the most devoted groupie jealous! Designer KahriAnne Kerr embraces her inner rock star goddess when designing her clothing line…Kahri by KahriAnne Kerr. And with a motto like Be Rebellious, you know this style maven’s designs are anything but boring. In fact, her looks have caught the eyes of stars like Paris Hilton and Aubrey O’Day.

Check out our interview with KahriAnne below. Also be sure to check out her Web site, Kahri.com, and her blog,BeRebellious.com to read up on her latest and greatest clothing collections. Now go on and be rebellious! And tell KahriAnne that the sisters sent you!

You used to be a gymnast and a cheerleader. So did the Celebutante Sisters.

Cool. I still love gymnastics, but it’s been 10 years since I quit, so I’m pretty bad now.

Where did your rocker-chic inspiration come from? We love it!

Well, it’s pretty random, my style, since I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere Iowa. But I’ve always loved music, especially rock, so it comes from there.

How did you come up with the motto “Be Rebellious”?

I can’t remember when I thought of that, but I guess I’ve always been a bit of a rebel, much to my parents delight. Just kidding, my parents are super conservative. I think being rebellious relates to all aspects of life, not just fashion. I think just being yourself and doing whatever you want and wearing whatever you want, despite what anyone says is being rebellious. I say just grab your life by the balls and go for it and don’t be a conformist.

How have your designs evolved over the years?

As I’ve grown up and moved from small town Iowa to big ass NYC my style has definitely grown. I didn’t know much about fashion or the fashion industry when I was 19 and started my biz, but now almost 6 years after I moved to NYC, I know too much about it. The quality of my clothing construction and materials is definitely much much better than when I first started, which is reflected in the prices now. I used to sell my stuff for next to nothing, but once you go silk, you can’t go back to polyester. Oh, and I used to get my fabrics at Jo-Ann’s and Wal-Mart back in Iowa, so luckily there is a much better fabric selection in NY. My designs are more sophisticated and complex now. It takes a lot longer to make pieces now, but french seams are worth it.

Your Spring 2009 Collection is called Baby Love. Tell us about it. Where did the inspiration for the line come from?

I was listening to a lot of early-mid 60’s songs, especially girl groups like the Supremes and the Shangri-Las, when I was designing the collection. I was raised by 60’s kids so I listened to a lot of that when I was growing up, but only recently gotten into that again. I made screenprint designs of a 60’s motorcylce inspired by the Shangri-Las “Leader of the Pack”, that I printed on some of the linings in the collection. I also made a LOVE design printed on linings, inspired by the decade of love children.

Read more of this interview here.

Shop KahriAnne Kerr online here.

Details:

• Fashion show will be on Thursday, July 16, 2009
• at The Liberty Hotel, Boston
• Doors will open at 8pm, Show starts at 10pm
• Show MC’d by former WWE wrestler, “The Scholar,” Chris Nowinksi

Please RSVP at fashion@libertyhotel.com to make sure your name is on the list.

I highly recommend seeing this exhibit at FIT if you are in NYC before Sept. 27th when the show will end.

Bring your sketch pads, there is much to be learned about the engineering that goes into the structure of Isabel’s pieces. Being in a room full of these designs & her husband Ruben’s illustrations was like standing in fashion surround-sound for me. I felt myself just wanting to turn and keep turning.

I really identified with this show because I often find myself inspired by the fabric and the energy of the moment. I would much rather the fabric reveal to me what it needs to be, rather than me manipulating fabric to what I want it to be. This seems to be what Isabel accomplishes, because when you stand there looking at each piece, in that moment you can’t imagine the fabric being anything else than what she allowed it to become.

FIT features Talk and Tours. Here are upcoming dates and times of the Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out, talk and Tours:
Tuesday, July 28  11 – noon (Valerie Steele)
Tuesday, August 11  11 – noon (Patricia Mears)
Monday, Setember 21 6 – 7pm ( Valerie Steele)

Fashion Conversation
Isabel and Ruben Toledo, in conversation with Valerie Steele
Thursday, September 24, 6 – 8 pm
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre

Programs are free but a reservation is recommended contact museuminfo@fitnyc.edu or call 212.217.4585

KREL-2-GO

Presents

The Garden of Unearthly Delights

Please join the KREL-2-GO team as they transform the Standard Hotel into a play ground of all things hot and delicious this summer!  The Garden of Unearthly Delights is the next stop on The Knitty Gritty Tour and they’re ready to lavish visitors with irresistible quickie couture and sumptuous events around the Standard’s serene gardens, spa and pool.  Indulge your inner Caligula at K2G’s toga party in the Hamam, where the week-long bacchanal begins!

THE SCHEDULE:

TUES. JULY 14: Toga Party in the Standard Spa’s Hamam
WEDS. JULY 15: KREL 2 Go performance and opening luncheon
THURS. JULY 16:  Retro Garden Tea Party, hosted by C. MADELEINE’S
FRI. JULY 17: Pool Party with performance by TM SISTERS
SAT. JULY 18: Burlesque show with Performance by SHAMELESS BURLESQUE troupe
SUN. KREL-2-GO Celebrity Fashion Show and Campfire Stories

If you go, tell her trishdarling sent you.

I received a pitch a couple of days ago from East Bay Style Collective asking if we would help get the word out about their upcoming fashion show. But of course…. anything to promote the fabulous emerging and independent fashion movement happening all across the country. Every time I look at my email there is another event happening in a new city or town, I love it. So different than when I first decided to go out on my own over 15 years ago. The emerging and independent fashion industry was just a glimmer of hope on a horizon that didn’t exist yet. Now 15 short years later with the help of the internet emerging/independent fashion designers are creating an industry that I personally hope never goes away. Some of us in this world weren’t meant to fit in a beautifully packaged marketing box. OK,  moving onto deets about the East Bay Style Collective Fashion Show:

This Sat., July 11, 2009 if you are in the East Bay area you might want to check this event out. 6-10pm at North Shattuck and Vine Streets, Berkeley.

Erica Tanov’s Fall ’09

Experience a night under the stars at the outdoor fashion show starting at 8 pm featuring Erica Tanov’s Fall ’09 collection, with trademark subtle details, fine fabrics and meticulous construction, Feather Vintage’s beautiful pairings of unique and designer vintage pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s and Magnet Boutique’s sophisticated urban mix of emerging Los Angeles and New York designers.

Additional fashion show participants include: Beauty and Attitude, Bryn Walker, Molly B., Riki, Lobelia, M. Lowe & Co, ACCI Gallery and Mixed Pickles.

Chairs for the show are $10.00. Complimentary goodie bags to the first 75 chairs sold. All makeup and hairstyles will be created by Herringbone Apothecary.

Shop before and after the show at the eclectic mix of boutiques located in North Berkeley. Created especially for this one night only, the designers’ pop-up shop located at 1491 Shattuck Avenue, will be open from 6-10pm brimming with well edited summer and transitional frocks, denim,  accessories, vintage and head-to-toe looks. What better mid-summer pick me up than a glass of wine in one hand and favorite fashion find in the other!

The local merchants have generously donated gifts for a raffle where all proceeds will support the East Bay non-profit, Princess Project (www.princessproject.org), and its efforts to promote self confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses to high school girls who
cannot otherwise afford them. One lucky person will win a bounty of prizes from a mix of Berkeley businesses!

for more info: www.eastbaystylecollective.com

If you are in the area of Grand Rapids, MI, you might want to check out the particulars:

Recycled Runway will feature emerging fashion designers in Grand Rapids who will create articles of clothing made out of repurposed and recycled objects. We ask that the fashion designer find a model for the show or model their designs themselves. This will be an opportunity for self-promotion and to meet other creatives in the field, as well as networking with other NoshNight goers. The last NoshNight event attracted 300 designers, artists, architects, and other creative professionals and we expect an even bigger crowd for the Street Party.

you can call Elizabeth Goddard at 454-7000 x25

or email egoddard@uica.org for more info and to register.

They would like to schedule two informal and informative meetings with participants. When contacting Elizabeth please indicate which meeting time you can attend to see the Material Afterlife exhibit, meet other participants, and if you want choose from some of our recycled items for your creations. Meetings times:
*BULL; Thursday July 9th at 5pm
• Monday July 13th at 5pm

As always keep us posted. We would love to post follow ups to this post. If you are participating or writing about the event we would love to know, contact us info@smashingdarling.com attn. Trish.

We Love the this project.

Not only does it support the idea of sustainable fashion, the year long project is also fundraiser for Akanksha’s School Project. The Project is a grassroots effort to raise money for children that grow up in the slums of India.

We also love that the dress chose to be worn everyday by Sheena Matheiken was designed by a friend of hers. Everyday Sheena will change the look and give it new style by changing the accessories. Check out the video we found of Sheena talking about the project with Daily Candy.

Donate accessories to the project Click Here.

Donate to Akanksha’s School Project Click Here.

Rock on Sheena Matheiken!

Smashing Night in the Hot City

KRELwear - V-Neck Fitted Bottom Tunic
The first thing I chose it this KRELwear tunic. It is versatile and can be worn as either a top or a dress. Sure, it’s short, but who cares? It’s hot. I vote for dress, definitely. I’m a firm believer in showing a little leg.

Victorian San Francisco – Cameo Blues
To balance out the brazen leg-flaunting, I decided to go with a beautiful relic of the staid Victorian era. This is a pewter cameo reproduction by Victorian San Francisco, and it is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. I adore cameos, and I like rocking a style that has been with us since the ancient Greeks and Romans were kicking around, yet still manages to stay relevant worldwide throughout the years.

Katie Burley – Mini Top Hat
I will admit, this one is a fantasy. I never usually have the courage to wear hats. But really, this Katie Burley mini top hat is just so freaking gorgeous that I would have to get over it. It is made with fabric feathers, and, I mean please, how could it not turn heads?

On The Inside Lingerie – Morning Glory Panties, Summersweet Bra
I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist these panties from On the Inside Lingerie. How could I not choose underwear that features the Virgin Mary on the crotch? And since I am mixing styles, why not through in a little Renaissance for good measure? Also, I love the mesh fabric, and there is a matching bra too.

ZJN4U – The Anna Purse
And finally, the ZJN4U Anna purse. It is constructed with vintage-style fabric and has a gorgeous gold handle. It’s elegant and small, but can still hold my iPhone, keys, wallet and lipgloss. Winner.

Thanks Smashing Darling!

Join Fashion Replant Magazine for the Second Annual San Francisco Fashion Awards.
The most fun Summer Fashion Event in San Francisco.
Including Pool Party, BBQ, Runway Show with 13 Designers, plus a Trunk Sale.

SPONSORS:
NOVO Magazine, SF Station + CITY Model Management

Runway Showcase featuring:
CHIHIRO IMAMURA
CANDICE SOUTAS
CARLY MIKKELSON
SARAH THOMAS
KARA KRAUSS
ANDREW WEGDE
CINDY VO
JULIA MEEKS
YVONNE QUINONES
SARAH BAKER
+
ALEXANDRIA von BROMSSEN
KITTINHAWK
X-tatic Process
MISS VELVET CREAM

Time: July 26, 2009 from 2pm to 9pm
Location: HOTEL PHOENIX
Street: 601 Eddy Street
City/Town: San Francisco, CA