Bellevue Fashion Week

Since I missed most of Bellevue Fashion Week (BFW) due to being in Japan, I was only able to attend 2 events this year, Youa attended the rest so check out her blog for the recap of the other shows. The first being the Lululemon Athletica fashion show and the Vogue Front Row Fashion Show. This years events were held at the Hyatt and it turned out to be a great location - parking was free!!

Lululemon Athletica: This show was a bit different than any of the others I have attended in the past. It began with some belly dancers and then moved to 20 minutes of Allison Forsyth, owner of Lululemon Athletica, giving a motivational speech about her time in the Olympics and her mother's battle with cancer. Her story was well received and touching but it was quite a different format for a fashion show. After she was done talking they had 8 or so models come out on both sides of the runway and workout in their clothes. Then they would switch sides. It came down to about 8 different outfits but different workout routines (however they seemed to lean more towards yoga). I liked the clothing and even saw a pair of shorts I need to go buy for my hot yoga classes but the workouts kind of took my attention away from the clothing and more on what was going on... Not sure if that was the point. Each model/athlete was really good at what they were doing - some of the yoga moves were amazing! All in all it wasn't a bad show, just different from what I have experienced before... Here are the pictures from the evening.

Vogue Front Row: The Vogue fashion show was introduced by Anne Vincent, Vogue's merchandising expert. She told us that some of the models were flown in from LA and some were from Seattle. I will say I missed the models that I have seen in years past but this selection of models did a fine job showing off the clothes and strutting their stuff. The selection of clothing was well paired with the different themes of the show. The 80's section of the show reminded me of the color block spread they did in The September Issue (if you haven't seen it you need to!).

I think my favorite part of the entire show was when they flashed past photos from the magazine up before the segment would begin. As for the fashion, tights were the one thing that stood out the most to me - lots and lots of great tights. I will be stocking up on tights for sure, especially after seeing all the great patterns and colors.

Thanks Vogue for adding a new element to our fashion scene! I wonder if they will pair up with Vogue next year or go it alone. In my opinion, BFW doesn't need Vogue to put on a great fashion week. It's definitely a very cool element to have but they have some talented people on their staff and have for the last few years pulled off some amazing shows. So, if Vogue comes back that will be great but if not, no worries, BFW will still be an amazing week of events.

Lastly, thanks BFW for allowing the media to even get swag bags - that is ALWAYS a plus! (7 Salon free haircut, shoe shine kit, spa kit, gift cards and discounts, headband, and much more).

Check out my pictures from the event - I can't say they turned out as well as I had hoped since I was in the 2nd row and had a few heads in the way. You get the idea though. :)