pittsburgh fashion week’s kickoff, “clearing for takeoff: destination fashion oz” took place last night, featuring runway shows by e.b.Pepper; the planet pulse; jupe boutique; sugar boutique & ironiece by designer kari kramer; roberta weissburg leathers; and mj whalen.

high points for me included jupe and some of the sugar show, as well as the costume couture by mj whalen presentation, which was clearly more walking art than wearable fashion—unless you happen to be lady gaga. the rest of the shows were unfortunately kind of forgettable.

in keeping with the theme of the night, the jupe models donned cute ruby “dorothy” slippers and showed off some of owner cara moody’s favorite pieces from the boutique, which she and her employees expertly styled for the show—including the super cute black patterned mini dress pictured above, a perfect summer-to-fall transition piece. just throw some tights and boots on her, and presto!

sugar’s presentation spiced things up a bit with lots of bold colors, fun prints, and a crazy ass peter pan-looking getup. it was an…odd combination. i’ll go into more detail in their photoset.

mj whalen’s “painted m” costume couture line closed out the show with looks inspired by the late alexander mcqueen. like i said, it basically looked to me like a parade of gagas sashaying down the runway, but i guess anytime you see a bedazzled gas mask or an outfit made out of an entire tree branch, who else can you imagine actually wearing it? regardless, it was fun to witness the amount of painstaking detail put into creating the line, and even more fun to watch the models trying not to face-plant while making their way down the runway with eyes covered in black lace and eye lash curlers.

overall, an interesting start to the week—some boringness, some cheesiness (e.g., decorations that looked like an elementary school art project), a little disorganization… but i have hope for the rest of the week. tonight’s event will feature international designer zang toi at the senator john heinz history center.

i’ll be there with my shitty camera (although, to be fair, it didn’t help that the models literally RAN down the runway) and i’ll give you all the details tomorrow!

poor-quality photos from last night continue in the following posts.