LA Designers Get Screen Time on New Melrose Place

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The premiere of the new Melrose Place is just over a month away (September 8, to be exact), and in all honesty, we haven't had very high expectations for the costume element—after all, the new 90210's interpretation of LA style has been a non-event compared that of its East Coast counterparts (read: Gossip Girl), so why should this be any different? But we became much more interested after learning stylist Emma Trask is working with local designers and boutiques to cull the stars' wardrobes, mixing pieces from the likes of Lloyd Klein, Louis Verdad, and Jeffrey Sebelia's Cosa Nostra with behemoths like Chloe, Balenciaga, and Lanvin. As she tells WWD: "I think it’s a good time for Los Angeles to be recognized in terms of design.”

The article goes on to outline the style archetypes for each lead actress, which, admittedly, include a lot of bikinis and denim and character profiles we've seen before (e.g. a sassy publicist who wears yellow Versace suits a la Sex and the City's Samantha Jones; a wholesome midwesterner turned nightclub door girl, in the vein of The Hills' Heidi Montag). But, hey, there does need to be some kind of realism to balance out all of the murder and backstabbing that's bound to occur, right?

UPDATED: The original version of this article stated that designer Jasmin Shokrian's work will be appearing on the new Melrose Place. In fact, her pieces were only pulled for a fashion shoot that accompanied the WWD story, and were not used on the show.
· LA Story: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz Takes On Melrose Place [WWD, sub. required]
· Melrose Place [Official Site]