Aspen International Fashion Week brings runway back to ski town

Posted: 02/27/2014 12:01:00 AM MST

Updated: 02/27/2014 01:00:13 AM MST

The catwalk is coming back to Aspen after a one-year absence, with a new name and leadership for 2014.

The Denver-based team behind Aspen International FashionWeek has big plans for the end-of-winter fashion event, starting by putting its past problems behind. They intend to build the type of draw that music and film festivals have become in other Western cities.

'The event has so much potential to bring to Colorado, to this industry and to the town of Aspen,' said Brooke Fogg, president of Aspen International Fashion Week, the successor to the now-defunct Aspen Fashion Week. 'If we do the job we hope to do, we hope to build it into an experience.'

The first Aspen International Fashion Week will descend upon the luxury ski town March 13-16, boasting a full schedule of outdoor après-ski fashion shows, boutique retail events and parties, including a black-and-white gala March 15 to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Concurrently, the Après Ski Cocktail Classic will be held in Snowmass and Aspen.

Fur designer Dennis Basso, fresh off his turn at New York Fashion Week, is among the marquee names on this year's outdoor runway, along with Aspen's own Sport Obermeyer, Columbia and Gorski Furs.

Snowlink.com, the consumer arm of SnowSports Industries America, is also sponsoring a day of runway shows, with presentations on the 'mega' trends and accessories for next ski season.

Aspen is a perfect example of mixing chic and functionality in outerwear - 'that's exactly what we're trying to bring to the show,' said Kerri Butler, the event's vice president of production. 'We have fur and we have Obermeyer.'

Fogg and her Denver-based crew take over the fashion-show banner from Lisa Johnson, who founded Aspen Fashion Week in 2009 before pulling the plug just weeks before the 2013 event.

Fogg, a Colorado native, is the president of Wilhelmina Denver, an affiliate of the national Wilhelmina Models agency, and owner of Premier Image Agency, an experiential marketing firm. Joining her is Butler, a Denver event planner and owner of A Touch of Bliss, and Katie Van Horne, model booker for Wilhelmina Denver.

Fogg got involved in Aspen Fashion Week in 2012 when Wilhelmina Denver supplied 19 models for the event. But Johnson and Fashion Week never paid the bill for more than $30,000 in talent, according to Fogg.

Over the years, Aspen Fashion Week was the subject of multiple claims from vendors who said they were not paid, according to news reports. That included Wilhelmina Denver, which won a default judgment against the former organizer, Fogg said.

A financial report, provided to the city of Aspen, showed the 2010 event ended with a deficit of $429,144, according to the Aspen Daily News. Organizers had to release the information because the event received $15,000 in public funding in 2010.

The 2013 event, scheduled for March 10-13, was canceled only a few weeks before opening day. Shortly thereafter, Fogg announced her intention to revive the event.

Fogg said she still believes a fashion week in Aspen is viable, 'with the right people in the right leadership roles.'

Her team has pared back the event's production costs - which Fogg said were a 'gross exaggeration' of what was necessary - by partnering with local businesses, not reserving big blocks of hotel rooms and changing some venues. Sponsors including Deep Eddy Vodka, Red Bull, Outside, Matthew Morris Salon & Skincare and Pressery are providing products, services and sponsoring events.

In future years, the team hopes to add more types of fashion - keeping in mind that its hallmark is an outdoor runway in March. Music, film and on-mountain activities could follow.

Colorado's fashion scene is 'absolutely growing,' Van Horne said, while acknowledging it will never reach the same status as New York or Los Angeles. The recent reality-TV turns of Denver's Mondo Guerra and Stephanie O - the latter of whom will be a guest at Aspen International Fashion Week - haven't hurt the city's profile, either.

'We're seeing a surge of people in these (larger) markets saying, 'What's happening over there in Denver?' ' Fogg said. 'People are really catching on to the fact that we're not what they think we are. We are developed, and we have a very supportive industry.'

Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or http://ift.tt/1d3fw1X

Aspen International Fashion Week

Shows, retail events and parties will be held March 13-16 in Aspen. Tickets are $275 for all-access pass; $100-$150 for single-day pass at http://ift.tt/1dfT44y.