Philadelphia Fashion Week (Day 2) -The future

I’ve always felt that Philadelphia Fashion Week, being somewhat new to the scene , has a challenging but exciting opportunity in front of it. New York has always been the place for the world’s eyes to converge when it comes to releasing new collections and promoting this billion dollar Industry. Philadelphia, although a hop skip and jump from NYC, was largely ignored. Over the past few years I’ve as a fashion photographer in Philadelphia my biggest challenge was always finding clients willing to hire outside NYC to shoot things like magazine spreads, look books, web content, catalog, ad campaigns; the bread and butter of a fashion photographers existence just simply didn’t have a huge market in Philly. Most of the larger designers here; Nicole Miller, Sailor Jerry, Urban Outfitters , Anthropologie, etc all tended to shoot in NYC. The magazines tended to use NYC models and getting to be one of the Photographers for Philadelphia magazine or Philly Style just seemed nearly impossible. I’ve often joked that I’ll be published in Italian Vogue before Philly Style returns my email. .. But with Philadelphia Fashion Week 2010 it seems like all that could change, and change quickly.



PFW has an opportunity to showcase up and coming superstars and position themselves (To NYC and the rest of the world) as the place to really find what’s happening before it happens. To make the discovery.



Last year one of the designers that showcased at PFW 2009 was S Love clothing, who later changed their name to just Sally Lapointe. Sally is an NYC designer and she chose PFW for her first debut of her collection; this year she premiered the 2010 collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC. She got amazing press coverage, was on NY Mag.com’s 9 designers to watch list, all over youtube, etc. She’s really blowing up. It all started in Philadelphia.



I think as the event grows, the bigger magazines, buyers, showrooms, and design houses will start to realize that Philadelphia is where you go to truly see what’s next. The Collections and talent start here and if you weren’t there to see it, you’re just behind the times, which in fashion is death.



Unlike MBFW, Philadelphia has everyone localized in one place. You aren’t going to miss some hot new line because Zac Posen or Chanel did their show at the same time across town, which is what happens in NYC every year.

Last night’s show was amazing. The models from Wilhelmina ALL were spot on perfect, everyone walk by every model was just great. The makeup, hair, styling all amazing as they owned the runway.



The showcase last night featured designers from all the local fashion schools; Moore College, University of Delaware, Philadelphia University, Drexel University, and Art Institute of Philadelphia. Last spring I shot the senior shows for Drexel and Moore so those collections had some familiar pieces in them for me and some of the models, but for the audience obviously they were new. One after another these colleges provided amazing fashion, innovation, design and skill. My only real complaint was the anonymity of it all. At times it felt like the schools were being showcased more than the actual fashion designers because their names weren’t individually broadcast, which I am not really even sure how they COULD have done that with so many different designers, but it’s something to definitely work on for next year. While having every designer present and credited on the runway would be a logistical nightmare, not having them there just doesn’t seem right either because people that love the outfits don’t exactly know who designed it other than the college they attended. If you are a designer that showed last night and you find my photos on Facebook, PLEASE tag them!



Rather than post all my favorite moments due to not having all the designers names I’ve decided to just mix it up and show you highlight shots. Some of the designers I recognized having shot Moore and Drexel before, so Neel Elsherif, Leah Boston, Riona Faith O'Malley and Joanna Holmes (Whose outfits also appear on my newest flier – Shot of Masha and Alyson) were already credited online. NYC buyers, show rooms, magazines, stylists; if you’re reading this, you have an opportunity here in Philadelphia every year to see what’s next before your competition does, come down and see the Future of Fashion, where innovation, talent and overwhelming passion for this Industry is fresh, alive and setting the runway ablaze!