D.C. Fashion: Leaving Local Designers Behind

Has Washington become a style capital? Those who've dubbed Chevy Chase's glittering new retail corridor "Chevy Chic" would have you think so. The District has its own Fashion Week, its own Fashion Council, its own fashion glossies and enough swell shopping to test any pair of Choos. Bloomingdale's and Barneys Co-Op, Gucci and Juicy Couture: It's all here, as much as your AmEx can take.

But as the local fashion scene undergoes a makeover, it risks becoming generic -- like a hapless "What Not to Wear" subject whose individuality gets bleached along with her teeth.

Many of the area's most-lauded new stores are national chains. Goodbye, Hecht's; hello, Bloomie's. And though several independent boutiques also have opened shop, they tend to trade heavily in labels such as Vince and Rebecca Taylor, non-local designers readily found in other cities.

What of D.C. designers? Some sell their wares online; or at Styleistics and Crafty Bastards; or at a handful of stores that stock locally made items, such as Alex Boutique near Dupont Circle. But to date, they have not played a significant role in the city's fashion and retail evolution.

That's too bad, because several are interesting enough that you wonder when some deep-pocketed soul will notice. No, Washington isn't New York: There isn't the same mile-deep talent pool, with Behnaz Sarafpour or Jack McCollough waiting to be plucked out of obscurity. But there's also little infrastructure to help the promising novices who do live here develop and succeed.

"In the industry in D.C., there's a lack of information," says Falls Church-based fashion and accessories designer Abigail de Casanova. "As a designer, you don't know where to go, what steps to take."

D.C. Fashion Week could be an incubator for local talent, but the event's mission seems muddled. The most recent collections included designers from New York, South Africa and Kazakhstan. During the previous season, there were shows for established New York-based designers Betsey Johnson and Sean John, both of whom have presented collections at New York Fashion Week. (And, really, one would be hard-pressed to argue that Johnson's see-through shrugs and polka-dot hot pants have much to do with D.C. style.)

The shows' director, Ean Williams, says the event focuses on international fashion partly out of necessity. "We favor D.C. designers," he says. "But to date, D.C. is just not known for designers being born out of here."

A few groups are working to make local designers a bigger part of the city's fashion formula. There's the DC Fashionista Meetup Group ( http://fashionista.meetup.com/95), headed by de Casanova. Designers, stylists and other creatives gather to trade tips on marketing themselves and developing their businesses. In one year, membership has swelled to nearly 800 people.

Last year, the Washington DC Fashion Council was created with the goal of passing a bill that would promote the District as a fashion destination. Also on the agenda: getting fashion design programs into the city's public schools and mapping out a retail corridor that would feature local, national and international designers in one concentrated area. The bill is awaiting review by the Committee for Economic Development.

"I think there's major potential because of the type of work that's being presented," council co-founder Christine Brooks-Cropper says. "But we need a liaison between the fashion community and the business community. . . . We need to assist designers and kind of act as a support system for them, so we can keep them in D.C."