Rock the Runway

{left to right: Me, Francisco Barragan, Melissa Steepe, and Jennifer Hood (Art Director of The OC Gazette).}

Thanks to our friends over at Revolution Radio on 105.1fm, I won four tickets to attend Rock The Runway this year. Being in the magazine world you make a lot of wonderful and interesting friends. One such friend is the one-woman-PR-show also known as Ashley Eckenweiler. She’s the go-to girl for anything music related going on in OC. She does PR for the OC Music Awards, the Yost Theater, OsCene, (to name a few) and our topic of discussion - Rock the Runway.

Well Ashley, Bravo. What could have been a small, kitsch-y, college runway show was a production that looked like it belonged in LA’s fashion week as opposed to the Art Institute’s parking lot. The minute you got out of your car you were unsure if you were in the right place. Greeted by a black carpet, guests were ushered to the media wall for photos and then on into the school to pick up their passes and wristbands. Wristbands in hand, the guests made their way through the school to the “parking lot” where the adventure began. Professional quality lights, sound and cameras hung about the giant stage/catwalk, all being manned with the speed and ease of well seasoned pros by the army of event hands. Camped around the perimeter of the stage were booths and demonstrations galore: Paul Mitchell’s Model Search 2010, a Skateboarding demo, tons of food and two VIP tents.

{In the Silver VIP tent}

Being press, we had the silver VIP tent, and even if they offered me to go to the gold I would have stayed happily in the silver. Our tent was going off. The DJ was spinning all the tunes we wanted to hear, and those who weren’t happily eating, drinking and socializing were packed on the dancefloor. Free drinks and food (including a chocolate fondue fountain) kept everyone full and well watered and models from the runway show could be seen mingling amongst students, guests, and the occasional local celebrity (I saw Real Housewive of Orange County, Vicki Gunlavson and her entourage in our tent).

{Daniel Magana, the 1st place winner of the student fashion design competition hugging his model.}

The main event was the fashion show. On hand to judge the show and elect a winner was a guest panel made up of  Luis Brajas (Flaunt Magazine Editor-In-Chief), Mila Hermanovski (One of the final 3 designers on Project Runway Season 7), and Dina Cerchione (one of TV’s top wardrobe stylists and designers). Again, the students showed up looking less like 20-somethings and more like seasoned veterans. Each designer's line was carefully constructed with precision and detail. In many runway shows, the clothing seems more geared to further fashion as an art form that needs to be pushed to the outer limits of originality regardless of functionality or accessibility; at Rock the Runway, no originality or creativity was spared, but all the lines were clothing you looked at and said, “I want to wear that.” Each designer concocted their own perfect blend of inspiration and functionality for a runway show that thrilled the hundreds of attendees and even wowed the guest judges.

{Stryker with celebrity judge Luis Brajas}

The show was effortlessly MCed by KROQ’s Stryker, who looked unusually dapper in a penguin suit. The only time I remembered that I wasn’t in LA and was in fact in the Art Institute parking lot was when a brief power outage interrupted the fashion show. No one skipped a beat, however. The models kept strutting their stuff, oblivious to the technical difficulties, thriving off of the growing roar of cheers and clapping from the crowd.

{BLOK}

{The Raveonettes}

The night was closed out with the fulfillment of the “Rock” in “Rock the Runway” - a live show from Danish indie rock band The Raveonettes. The crowd was already primed and ready for the Nords, having just taken in the hip shaking beats of OC band BLOK. BLOK’s high energy show was only rivaled by The Ravonettes’. A dynamic duo of just lead singer/guitarist Sharin Foo and guitarist/bassist Sune Rose Wagner, you barely realize there isn’t a full backing band from the thick rock sound of songs like “Love In A Trashcan.”  My friends and I left the event like a bunch of chatty middle school girls, our excited conversation flying back and forth between exaltations of the fun that had just transpired and the loose planning of our future in the fashion world (starting with fashion school and wandering as far as the plotting of our Fall 2012 lines). 

- Amy

On my Blip.fm: Nancy Sinatra's "Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"