EVENT REPORT: GENART FASHIONABLY NATURAL & FRESH FACES IN FASHION 2008; TWO BACK-TO-BACK NIGHTS OF FASHION SHOWS AND AFTERPARTIES ROCK THE PETERSEN

by Harrison Held

At Genart's Fashionably Natural event (held on October 9, 2008), Maggie Gyllenhaal and SOYJOY definitely brought this boy joy -- as did Mandy Moore the following night when she was the celebrity host of the 11th Annual Fresh Faces in Fashion, another stellar Genart event always held at the start of LA Fashion Week. Both happenings were held at the beautiful Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles, always a great place for A-List events.

During the October 9 event, the effervesecent, lovely and talented "Ms. G." had the honor of introducing the eco-friendly spring '09 beautiful collections of Velvet Leaf, Brigid Catiis, Popomomo and The Battalion. The show was great, the event was fun and upbeat with great music by DJ Pesce, the eats and drinks were good and there was a kind of almost wholesome, organic vibe in the air as the beautiful models walked the catwalk. And those SOYJOY bars are good -- healthy, delicious and low calorie!

"Ms. M" (photo left) was equally as lovely the next night as she introduced, for women, the dynamic fashions of LAEKEN, Maxine Dillon, Nanushka, PEONIE, Quail and WAYF -- and for men, K.Z.O. and Wayne Hadly.

Both shows were great successes. Fashionably Natural brought out celebs like Willa Holland, Vanessa Brand, tennis player Katya Decker-Sadowski, Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith, Christine Lakin, Katie Chonacas, Andrew Roach and Krysten Ritter to name a few. On the red carpet I pondered if Ms. Ritter was a relative of the late great John Ritter; "No" I was told... and coicidentally, seated near me at the show was lovely British Vogue writer Davida Deutsch Hall who I found out used to go to school with Jason Ritter and knew John too. Small world...

Celebs attending the FFiF event on October 10 included the Pussycat Dolls' Carmit Bachar, designer Katie Rodriguez (who received a special award to kick off the evening), Carly Craig, George Blodwell, The Rad Girls, Lloyd Klein, Tony Alva, Hope Dworayck and back for a second night Katja Decker-Sadowski looking gorgeous in black with her pal Jason Wahler. Rockin' music was provided by DJ Jasepi and cute hats supplied by Goorin Bros.

It was a total surprise and a blast to see my pal model Gaston Willig up on the runway and always great running into celeb photog Byron Purvis, a very talented host, actor and voice over artist as well. Thanks to Genart for the great event, and thanks to Carl Lindstrom for the nice photos on 944.com.

Event Report courtesy of Harrison Held; see his website at HarrisonHeldStarMedia.com. Story edited by Don Rose. Special thanks to EMG PR (Evolutionary Media Group) for their assistance on these and many other excellent events.