San Fran Set To Host Silicon Valley Fashion Week
Silicon Valley Fashion Week is upon us! So get ready for the standard hoodies, sneakers, and the black turtlenecks, right? Wrong! The tech capital of the world is setting out to prove you wrong with a new Silicon Valley Fashion Week. The event is coming to San Francisco this May and the name and concept were thought up by Chris Lindland, the founder and CEO of Betabrand, a San Francisco-based crowdfunding app for fashion that is hosting the shindig. The three-day tech-meets-fashion extravaganza will take place May 12-14 at The Chapel on Valencia Street in San Fran, right in the heart of the Mission District.
“Now and then I encounter fashion shows here and most of them seem to be—I’ll gently say, they’re a little bit like knockoffs of New York,” said Lindland. “And they’re not focused on what San Francisco is so great at, which is specifically technology.”
Unlike the other fashion weeks across the globe in New York, Milan, Paris, or London, each night in San Francisco will center on a different theme. For starters, movement and lighting, “It’s drawing inspiration from the festival world, LED-enabled clothing. If you take a look somewhere like Burning Man, you’ll see some of the most amazing fashion you’ll ever find,” Lindland said. One example Lindland described was “flashback clothing” made entirely from reflective materials, saying of the designs, “They’re actually amazing nightlife-wear.” The 2nd night will focus on “wearables” in the same vein as the Apple Watch, and closing night will feature items from crowdfunded fashion designers.
To keep with the overall tech theme though, Betabrand will use drones instead of models. “It’s not a novelty,” Lindland explained. “The clothing kind of flutters and dances in the wind and does things humans can’t. I’m not kidding, the clothing enchants you.”
Lindland noted that San Francisco is known as a fashion “backwater” when it shouldn’t be. California is home to many classic American brands like Levi’s and Gap. “It may sound awkward that Silicon Valley is having fashion week, but the reality is that “wearables” are very much affecting people’s identity,” Lindland added.
