Aspen Fashion Week

Aspen Fashion Week 2011 to Begin March 13th

Aspen, CO, the epicenter of winter luxury, has announced plans for the the 3rd annual Aspen Fashion Week (AFW) taking place from March 13th to 16th in various locations around the
top-drawer town. The destination fashion event, designed to showcase and market winter
resort, ski and technical outerwear in the country's most stylish mountain playground, will feature daily après ski fashion shows, in-store presentations, on-mountain events and late night fashionable soirées. Participating brands include Authier, Rossignol, Dannenmann-Pure, NUMBER: Lab, Obermeyer and Burton.

Heidiskis will serve as the ofﬁcial ski partner, while FEED will serve as the ofﬁcial charitable partner, featuring their AFW FEED bag exclusively on-site. Proceeds from the FEED bag will beneﬁt the foundation, and Founder Lauren Bush (recently engaged to Ralph Lauren's dashing son David) will be on hand to host events in conjunction with The Feed Foundation. In addition, William Grant & Sons will serve as the ofﬁcial spirits partner. "Aspen Fashion Week has an intensely exciting schedule this year and an amazing follow up to last yearʼs event," says founder Lisa Johnson. " Weʼre looking forward to an exciting future with the event becoming stronger each year."

Gallery: Aspen Fashion Week

Tags: Aspen, Aspen Fashion Week, fashion shows, Fashion Week, FEED, Lauren Bush, Ralph Lauren, ski, ski resort, skiing, William Grant Sons, winter, winter sports

EXCLUSIVE: Aspen Fashion Week Founder Lisa Johnson's Ten Essential Luxuries

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Handbags, Wine, Events, Sports, 10 Luxuries

Click above to see Lisa Johnson's 10 Luxuries

The innovator behind Aspen Fashion Week, Lisa Johnson had a hunch that a fashion event combining the chic of skiing, winter and resort with the high energy appeal of Aspen would be a huge hit. As the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, managing the destination marketing funds on behalf of the City of Aspen, Lisa worked with major events and productions like ESPN Winter X Games, HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and Luxury Spa Finder's Aspen Spa Day. Also as part of her six year tenure with the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, Lisa managed the media relations efforts and served as a de facto film commissioner assisting on film, television and commercial productions of all sizes.

"Aspen is the most recognizable mountain town and the undeniable center of the winter lifestyle," Johnson, pictured above, center, with Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson from FEED, tells Luxist. "Most of the major fashion and luxury brands have boutiques here because it caters to a very high-end consumer and has some of the most influential buyers in winter and ski. I strongly felt that Aspen could support a fashion event in which designers and outerwear / ski brands could show collections in a fun, relaxed, high energy format to a consumer with the ability to walk into the stores to buy. And having Aspen Mountain as a backdrop is never a bad setting!" In the gallery are images of Johnson's essential luxuries, from skis to wine to books and bags, along with quotes about what makes them a must.

Gallery: Aspen Fashion Week Founder Lisa Johnson's 10 Luxuries

Tags: Aspen, Aspen Fashion Week, Colorado, fashion, fashion show, FEED bags, Lisa Johnson, resort, skiing, winter sports

Aspen Fashion Week: Combining Play With Philanthropy

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Events, By Design

An important part of Aspen's cachet lies in its relative isolation combined with its great wealth. This unusual combination is part of its history. It was in 1879 when a few pioneers crossed the Continental Divide, and discovered a Ute hunting area, a valley sheltered on three sides by mountain ranges, rich with game, and fresh water. Also, they discovered, a great abundance of silver. So even then, the possibility of wealth, combined with isolation equaled a kind of intrigue, and helped define Aspen as it was then and, to some degree, Aspen as it is now.

These days, Aspen is defined not by the possibility of wealth, but by the reality of it: the most billionaires per capita in a small town, again a town consistently on the most-expensive-places-to-live lists, a town with a sustained and sustainable luxury energy. This energy is defined by partly by the enjoyment of high altitude sports and cultural events, but it is also defined by a great amount of philanthropy, as are many areas in this country blessed with great wealth. Along with Ralph Lauren, Dior, Prada, Bulgari,Gucci, Fendi, and all other luxury boutique emporia, is The Aspen Institute, The Sports Philanthropy Project, The Aspen Foundation, The Aspen Community Foundation, to name just a few. And this is a small town – about 6000 people, about 3.5 square miles long. The most recent coming together of wealth, philanthropy and enjoyment was Aspen Fashion Week held from March 14 to March 19, 2010. It was a destination fashion event designed to showcase and market the winter resort, ski and tech outerwear both at home and slope side.

"The second Aspen Fashion Week quickly developed into a must on the fashion and entertainment calendar," said Lisa Johnson founder of AFW. "Aspen is prime for an event of this caliber; combining world class designers, young designers and brands with unique art programs, film screenings, and great music."

Gallery: Aspen Fashion Week

Tags: Aspen Colorado, Aspen Fashion Week, Aspen Institute, Christian Siriano, Cos Bar, Douglas Keeves, Gabriel Conroy, Heidiski, Helly Hansen, John Forte, Kjus, Obermeyer, The Feed Foundation

Continue reading “Aspen Fashion Week: Combining Play With Philanthropy”

Aspen Fashion Week Set for March

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Events, Sports

In the wake of a successful inaugural preview last year, the 2nd annual Aspen Fashion Week has been slated for March 14 – 19, showing that the ultra-chic Colorado resort is truly recession-proof. Designed to showcase and market winter resort, ski and technical outerwear in the home and playground of the country's most stylish mountain winter town, the occasion will feature slopeside runway events, daily après ski fashion shows, in-store presentations, on-mountain events and late night fashionable soirées. Expect world class designers, emerging fashionistas, brands with unique art programs, film screenings, music and models galore. W magazine will kick-off the festivities with an opening night party. Labels getting in on the action include Burberry, J. Crew, Helly Hansen, Victorinox, Calypso, Authier and more.

Tags: Aspen, Aspen Fashion Week, AspenFashionWeek, Colorado, fashion show, Fashion Week, FashionShow, FashionWeek, ski, skiing