Mikey Koffman has been involved in the fashion industry in LA for quite some time.   From producing her own international line to her affiliation with the initial fashion week at the Standard hotel and the Culver City’s Smashbox when it was partnered with IMG.  And for the last four seasons, she has produced some impressive runway shows at Sunset Gowers Studios in Hollywood just when it seemed the “runway show” was becoming a dying breed during fashion week in LA.  This season, Koffman presented a lineup of Los Angeles based designers unifying Los Angeles fashion seekers, buyers, celebrities, stylists, and press.   With every new season, it’s becoming clear that our city of angels has found its fashion week home base at last!

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples (boldface)
Responses by Mikey Koffman

I’m really thrilled to discover that you’re the one doing real runway shows.  Tell me about your background and how you ended up at this point?

I used to work in motorcycle shops, building custom motorcycles when I was younger.  I kind of accidentally started a clothing line that went international within the first year.  Ended up doing a lot of PR and marketing from some really big brands and found myself producing runway shows for these beer companies.  Thus, working with Smashbox Studios and producing shows for fashion week since its inception nine years ago in Los Angeles.  Started at the roof of the downtown Standard.  Spent about six years producing shows in Culver City; and about two years ago, IMG and Smashbox split their partnership up, so we’ve taken over LA Fashion Week, producing all the professional runway productions here in Los Angeles. And moved fashion week to Los Angeles at Sunset Gower Studios.

How long have you been producing the Sunset Gower events?

It’s been two years now, our fourth season of producing fashion week.  So we literally picked up the season after where Smashbox left off.

How has that been going?

Honestly, it’s amazing.  I am so happy.  It’s something I am so passionate about.  It’s really amazing to be involved in this production and to be able to have complete control over everything.  It allows us to bring our sponsors in—things that we couldn’t do before—working with IMG and Smashbox because they had their own sponsors.  It allows us to have complete creative control over all the branding of the shows.

That sounds like a lot of work!

It is a lot of work, but we love it.  It’s really awesome.  I have a great team that I work with, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

I recently wrote an article about LA Fashion Week about how it seems disconnected.  Can you give me your take on where you feel things are going for fashion week?

It’s been a little bit turbulent since shows stopped happening at Smashbox.  People have decided to say there’s no more fashion week.  It’s a little bit frustrating for me because we’ve done runway shows every season.

We discovered something about each other the last time we met.  We both have a passion for foster youth.  Tell me a little about your nonprofit/philanthropic pursuits.

This season we’re working with HRC for fashion week.  They had a big footprint in New York at Bryant Park.  But most importantly, my favorite thing is working with the kids.  We’ve really developed this partnership with the Green Youth Movement.  We’ve set up a tree planting with them to offset our carbon footprint with fashion week.  It’s a really amazing, feel good experience.  In our business, it can be really superficial, and it doesn’t feel like you’re getting or giving back, and this is our way of having what we do feel good.

Could you tell our readers a little bit about your past?  You’ve really overcome a lot.  It’s really amazing.

I grew up in the Culver City projects.  I had a really rough upbringing.  My family was super poor. And there were about eight kids, and I was the only grandkid.  My grandmother raised me.  I grew up completely underprivileged.  It was a tough environment, and I didn’t want to end up being a product of my environment, which would have been either a prostitute or a drug dealer.  It just wasn’t a route that I was going to take with my life.  I got out of there when I was about 17, and I’ve been working for myself ever since.  I got a job, delved into motorcycles—anything that could get me out of my environment.  I played a lot of sports growing up to not have to come home every day.  It was really tough. I was taken out of my home and put in a foster hall for a while.  It was really a tough upbringing.  My whole mission, purpose of being, and my business is to really drive it back to these kids.  At the end of the day my message is, “You can be and do anything you want in this life.  You don’t have to be a product of your environment.  You just have to be passionate and have a love for something.”

How do you feel that what you’re doing will help people’s awareness of fashion week?

I think LA Fashion Week has gotten a bad rap.  Everybody’s compared it to New York or Milan or other fashion weeks that are a lot more prominent.  But it’s like comparing apples and oranges.  At the end of the day New York fashion week is beautiful.  I find it to be a vanity project where designers go out there and they basically flaunt what their concepts are.  One thing we do differently here in LA is consumer-driven fashion.  The focus for our fashion week that we produce is to work with some major labels that retail at department stores or the higher end boutiques.  We want those buyers to come to the show.  We want the designers to use that fashion show as a marketing tool to turn around and have the buyers back to their showroom and write orders.  And that’s generally what happens with all of our brands.

We’re trying to create for our designers a full turnkey production where they have great runway and photos that they can use for their PR or their ad campaigns or editorial.  That’s really what we’re pushing.   It’s important for these brands to really turn this into a dollar-making event.

Where do you see LA Fashion Week and your involvement with it in 5 years?

I see a lot more television production revolving around LA Fashion Week.  Bringing it clout and visibility is what’s going to help bring the big sponsors.  I’d ideally love to turn it into a moneymaking event—it’s absolutely NOT a moneymaking event.  It has never really been, even for the bigger companies that have produced it before.  If you’re producing a show at LA Fashion Week, you’re doing it because you love fashion not because it’s a big money maker.

To learn more about Mikey Koffman and LA Fashion Week, visit www.losangelesfw.com, or email her at info@loasangelesfw.com

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

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