Pool Fashion Trade Show kicked-off a special event June 7th called “Concept to Creation” which in many ways indicates their new direction of focusing on fashion design and the designers themselves rather than just art and fashion. With invites featuring designer sketches”, rulers, swatches, and pantone color flip books, you can see how the transition is making a special emphasis on the designers behind the brands that will be a part of their upcoming trade show August 26-28 in Las Vegas.

Hosted at their Loop Space in Silverlake, the still-hipster location of East LA sprinkled with cool boutiques, cafes, bookstores, and bungalow houses, Concept to Creation attracted an excellent summer fashion crowd -trend leaders in their own right–including plenty of women in this summer’s season short shorts with full-bodied shoes and heels and button-down blouses, and guys in skinny jeans, stripes, vests, and heavy accessories. Previously featured designers from Elmer Ave. and Skin Graft Designs were on hand, as well as a number of people in town for the Designers & Agents show (see story this week). At Concept to Creation, Pool chose to feature designers from Anzevino & Florence, Mary Meyer, Feral Childe, Gytha Mander, Velvet Leaf, Meadow, and REVL, all of whom showcased their collections in various installation pieces, along with racks of garments and accessories which attendees could purchase on-site, produced by pop-up shop producers Apartment-3.

While the show was not a runway version this time around, there was plenty of space to view the “Look Book” type live photo shoot whereby models came to the stage in featured designer pieces with cut-out cardboard sketches of the individual garments they were wearing. Lights, loads of press cameras, and an eclectic mix-up of models and brands kept the show quite interesting, despite the length and diversity of the various collections all being shot in one timeframe.

The Loop space itself is always transformative as Pool tends to host many different events with varying themes throughout the year in their warehouse/office space. The front part, where people gathered for drinks provided by Marani Vodka, Peroni Italy, Monster, and Hint Water was continuously packed as people hung out, eating frozen deserts from Archie’s ice cream truck or grabbing a burger from the burger truck parked onsite. Sportswear International sponsored the event along with Thrillist.