Aspen Looks Beyond Skiing : Brings Fashion Week 2009

The first week of coming March will bring something unique to Aspen. The city famous for its skiing resorts will witness fashion models engaged in catwalks. Lisa Johnson, former Director of Marketing, Aspen Chamber Resort Association, is set to bring inaugural Aspen Fashion Week from the first to fifth of march in 2009.

However, the inaugural fashion week is not going to be a mega event. It will consist only of on-mountain parties, in-store presentations and after-hours parties. Hopefully, the second version slated to be held in 2010 will see a substantially upgraded sequel. Because that edition will see the use of white tents and runways reminiscent of New York Fashion Week.

Though organizing a fashion week in Aspen, a heaven for ski lovers, has raised many eyebrows, Lisa Johnson is pretty hopeful and predicts a healthy fashion business in the town. The former director termed the fashion show as "a perfect marriage of fashion and winter ski culture."

The theme of the fashion week, though not announced officially, seem to highlight this relation. According to Johnson, about 12 designers will come with self-designed fashion apparel reflecting the mountain culture. The models are expected to put on "winter resort wear, ski and snowboard apparel and fashion accessories representing the mountain lifestyle."

Johnson took almost one and a half year to materialize her dream. She describes her job as a director of marketing for Aspen Chamber Resort Association as the real inspiration to organize such a fashion week. According to a report, the job forced her to think of the next big event in town.

"I wondered why, with all the high-end retail, in a town that really is the king of ski resorts and winter culture, there wasn't something that specifically focused on fashion," Johnson says. "It's something that's in all of our lives, for locals and tourists, whether it's walking around town or looking good on the hill."

But this fashion week seems not to open its doors to everyone. "We're going to really focus on media in year one. Media, people in the fashion industry and just key people in the fashion world so that it can grow in the future,” Johnson reported. Surely, the common fashion lovers have to wait, at least upto the second show.