From The Hip -- Arena: A Rockin' Fashion Show Where The Crowd Is Watched As Much As The Models

Arena is marketed as a fashion show, but one thing to understand from the outset is that it is also a happening. Yes, there are "collections" of clothes paraded down a big runway on hip-pivoting models. Some of the outfits are usually even wearable.

But in the six years that the local gang of youthful fashion entrepreneurs has been putting on the show, it has also become the only really big, hip, fashion happening in town.

Held annually at the grandly remodeled Union Station on the edge of the International District, the show, which typically draws a sell-out crowd of at least 1,000, is a party where 25-year-olds with heaps of downtown attitude schmooze, network, air kiss and wave cigarettes at each other.

They wear black leather, corsets, ankle-threatening heels, platform shoes, drop-dead bias-cut dresses, skirts so short they look like infant gowns, gobs of eye makeup and whatever other fashion nuance is enjoying its moment in the spotlight.

Men wear roughly the same.

This is the First Avenue crowd, and most wouldn't be caught dead shopping at department stores. They'd rather give up their unfiltered Camels than set foot in a mall. Mostly they patronize the kind of designers that sell the clothes coming down the runway.

This year's designer lineup includes perennially stylish Carol McClellan, who has branched out from chic leather jackets and ensembles to chic faux leather jackets and ensembles, also vinyl, knits and woolens. Her women's and men's wear is always smart, sleek and, by Arena standards, relatively untrendy.

As always, Jason Harler, Arena's founder, producer and one of the city's most energetic fashion entrepreneurs, will show this year. In his latest venture as designer and retailer (his store is Garuda, a boutique on First Avenue at Union), he is selling men's and women's clothes mostly designed by him and Michael Colovos, a young Seattle designer who has worked for New York designer Victor Alfaro.

Harler started Arena six years ago as a nonprofit event to give local independent designers a showcase. Designers invited were men and women who don't work for other labels or manufacturers. Early shows were held in small rented halls and were, Harler admits, pretty much all-comers' meets.

Since then, Arena organizers have tried to select designers committed to manufacturing ready-to-wear and getting their clothes into stores.

Thanks to the involvement of Linda Deal, a Nordstrom department manager who also is this year's Arena fashion show coordinator and director, three of this year's showcased designers already have been promised trunk shows at several Nordstrom Savvy departments, which are the most fashion-forward departments within the Nordstrom chain. Deal is the manager of the Alderwood Savvy department.

Arena labels getting Nordstrom trunks shows on Aug. 25 and 26 are Garuda, Carol McClellan and Sunde, the women's line from Sin. (Deal says Nordstrom is interested in Sunde's Lycra and knit corsets and skirts, not the company's better-known black leather. Deal says Nordstrom has already bought most of the clothes for the trunk shows, though a few other pieces will be available through special orders.

"I'm really excited about these trunk shows," Deal said. "This is what we've been aiming for all along, getting the designers who are ready for it, who are ready to produce, into stores."

Tickets to Arena pay for the rental of the station and other overhead. All the models, makeup artists and many who toil behind the scenes are volunteers. Sean Orr, a Seattle hair designer and makeup artist, organizes a platoon of 40 volunteer stylists. Jon Rosson, in real-life a property manager, is volunteering as event coordinator.

Other designers or labels included in the show will be Cicada, Verve, Alicia Wullum, A Shape of Time, CharCo 6001, Pandemonium, Pig Pen Design, Kay's Exclusive Designer Headwear, Izzie Lewis Millinery and Ann De Vuono.

As always, some of what comes down the runway will be outrageous.

------------------ ARENA FASHION SHOW ------------------

Aug. 19, 8 p.m., Union Station, 401 S. Jackson. Advance tickets are $15 and available at Garuda Clothier, Paragon Clothing and Uno Duo, all on First Avenue; Sin and Rudy's, on East Pine Street; Betsey Johnson on Fifth Avenue; and Market Optical, at Pike Place Market. Tickets at the door, if available, will be $20. Reserved tables for 10 are available in advance for $140.