Stop Staring! at Style Fashion Week

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LA Fashion Week finally limped to a close, and now we're trying to sort it out and put it in perspective. We can't quite get a handle on what the Style Fashion Week is supposed to be about. Unlike Concept, the other big LAFW fest, which is both a celebration of the experimental and an attempt to give exposure to upstart or lesser-known LA labels, Style Fashion Week puts clothes that are often already in stores up on the runway. For example, the night we went featured runway shows by Stop Staring! and Alternative Apparel, available at a mall near you.

People watching is one of the big highlights at any LAFW week event (sometimes the main attraction), so we made sure to get there early to take some style snaps. What we found a tad unusual about the Stop Staring! show was that so many of the attendees were wearing dresses from the label. Since the show was open to the public, it's possible that fans of the label decided to come see the show. Or maybe they got a ticket free with the purchase of a dress. Or maybe some memo went around about dress code, that we clearly didn't get. When you see one or two vintage ladies, you think, "Oh cute." But when there are two hundred of them and it looks like a rockabilly army, that's a bit much. On this measure, we're going to give the nod to Concept as the better fashion show.

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The best word we can use to describe Stop Staring! is "implausible". The show featured a few pretty dresses in lovely prints -- very Dita Von Teese, but they also showed lots of pencil skirts with crop tops, tap pant-overalls, and a silver lame flared jumpsuit with a halter top. Yes, really. 95% of the dresses are so fitted, that, in the case of MC Lisa Ann Walter, the wearer's underpinnings, like corsets and Spanx, are showed off in gory detail.

The one thing you can say about Stop Staring! is that they've fully articulated a very specific look and they really know their market. And we bet they're enjoying a moment with the Mad Men-induced retromania. We'll also say we enjoyed the brevity of their show. But whatever we say, or don't say, or snarkily imply, we can't debate that they lot of fans. As is evidenced by the fact that there were so many women in attendance who were not comped but had actually payed full price for a dress (usually in the $150 range), which really says something.
· All LAFW coverage [Racked LA]