The Bravern Fashion Week 2018
This year, The Shops at The Bravern hosted their first fashion week. Usually, September is reserved for my excitement and panic about what I'm going to wear to Fashion Week at The Bellevue Collection, but I think The Bravern may give The Bellevue Collection a run for its money from now on.
Even though the "week" only consisted of about three days (which seems to be pretty common in Seattle), I was blown away at their first attempt at hosting organized, relevant, and stylish events.For those who don't know The Shops at The Bravern are on a whole different level of shopping. Anchored by Neiman Marcus and housing some of the top luxury brands in the world including Gucci, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Prada, you shouldn't expect to shop there on a limited budget. I've only been to the shopping center a few times for events, but I don't feel like my bank account is luxurious enough to actually spend money there yet. Nevertheless, I was intrigued at the opportunity to feel at least like a million bucks for a few days so I promptly purchased my tickets for the opening party ($15), panel discussion ($0), and the runway show ($25). Seriously. For a location like that, I would have expected to pay at least $75. (But if anyone at The Bravern is reading this, please don't get any ideas...)
Merchants of The Bravern also hosted store-wide events including special shopping discounts, free champagne, featured fashion illustrators and calligraphers, living statues, and even a test drive from Rolls-Royce, but I decided to skip those this year. So, let's start with the opening party. Hosted Friday night at Mariposa at Neiman Marcus, the cute little bar was filled to capacity with people I'd never seen before. I expected to be in a room full of people I'd met at previous fashion events including models, bloggers, designers, etc. Nope. I only recognized a few faces like stylist Tannya Bernadette, David Bailey of Fashion District NW, Vanguard Seattle style writer Lisa Cole, and the Seattle Gents, and met a few new people like Seattle Magazine style writer Andrew Hoge. Other than that, the champagne was delicious and the get-together definitely had me excited about the runway show.
Next was the panel discussion on Saturday at noon at The Bravern Signature Residences. The panelists included Matthew Klutznick, General Manager of The Bravern; David Blackham, President of David Lawrence; and Richard Samuelson, Vice President/General Manager of Neiman Marcus Bellevue. Menswear influencer and Seattle Gent, Nelson Yong moderated the discussion that focused heavily on the impact of The Shops at The Bravern in the Pacific Northwest. It was pretty clear that the goal of the shopping center is to cater to lovers of luxury, which can seem a bit out of place in an area mistakenly known for its lack of fashion sense. But I think there's something to be said for brands that own their exclusivity and maintain quality over quantity. The evolution of the customer was another featured topic. While the shopping center doesn't cater to everyone's tastes, great customer service is still a top priority. The discussion was very insightful about how The Bravern runs, but honestly, it would have been nice to hear a female's perspective. Hopefully, future discussions can incorporate a female voice on the state of luxury fashion in our area.
Last was the runway show on Saturday night on the lower level of Neiman Marcus. I'd been to fabulous events at Neiman Marcus before like the #ProjectBeauty event, the So Crazy Good Event, and the Cusp Fall Trend Event so I was excited to see how this one would turn out. I arrived about twenty-five minutes before the show started to a huge crowd. As I rode down the escalator, I wondered how on earth was I going to get good photos with this huge crowd, because of course, I'd probably have a third-row seat all the way at the end of the runway. But alas, the fashion gods smiled at me. I was granted a front-row seat with perfect angles (and I still managed to take some crappy photos...).
The show was curated by Darryl Thomas, Visual Manager at Neiman Marcus, and included some eye-popping get-ups. Bold colors, animal prints, and power suits with my favorite bold shoulder were some of the trends I noticed. Another thing I noticed was that the overall theme screamed 80's to me which isn't particularly new for fashion events hosted at Neiman Marcus.
After the show, guests were invited to drink and shop, which signaled my cue to exit the property before some seriously bad decisions were made. Overall, I think The Bravern did a fantastic job with their first fashion week and I'm excited to attend many more in the future. To see more (and better) photos from the events, check out the #BravernFashionWeek hashtag on Instagram. You can even check out the photo galleries by photographer Vivian Hsu at VivianHsuPhotography.com.
If you missed out on this year's event, be sure to follow The Shops at The Bravern on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates on next year's fashion week. I'd also suggest signing up for an Eventbrite account (if you don't have one already) and following The Shops at The Bravern to get notified when tickets are available.
