Los Angeles, Mar. 29-Apr. 2 – The designers may not yet be household names, but maybe the uptight big guns in New York could learn a thing or two from the looser vibe and sense of fun that pervade Los Angeles’ fledgling Fashion Week. Even with lesser-known talents showing their wares on the runways, on just a couple visits to the shows at Smashbox Studios in Culver City we found Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Farrah Fawcett, Kelly Rowland, Angela Bassett, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rod Stewart, Jessica Alba, Amy Smart and Seth Green. Jack Osbourne even took some time off from rehab to hit the front rows.

Paris Hilton was surprisingly absent from the scene, but her sister Nicky was ubiquitous, attending most of the shows when not reporting on them for Marie Claire magazine, or modeling on the catwalk (she also modeled a few times during February’s NY shows.) Dave Navarro and Kimberly Stewart (Rod’s daughter) also worked the runways alongside the supermodels. Take that New York!

Mercedes-Benz, which pulled out this past season as sponsor of New York’s Fashion Week (replaced by Olympus), still backs L.A. Just our guess that MB noticed that while the L.A. fashionistas were driving to the fashion shows in their luxury vehicles, the NY crowd uses Lincoln Town Cars. Or the subways.

Photos by Jen Lowery