[La] Force to be Reckoned With

By Olivia DeCarlo

What’s in a name? A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but it won’t sell as well. James LaForce puts his evocative last name to work as cofounder of the public relations superfirm LaForce + Stevens. After graduating from Columbia’s School of General Studies in 1981, LaForce made his mark in the public relations industry, teaming up with Leslie Stevens in 1995 to found their own boutique agency. Since then, the company has become one of the leading marketing and public relations firms in the industry, bringing a fresh, innovative, and consumer-savvy approach to the brand-building business. While their clients span many genres—from travel and architecture to beauty and retail—the company’s roster of fashion clientele represents the best of the best—Bill Blass, Luca Luca, Phillip Lim, Diesel, Rebecca Taylor, and Doo.Ri, to name a few. Naturally, Fashion Week is their promotional marathon. Luckily for us, LaForce managed to take a breather to chat with his a representative of his alma mater about the buzz and the biz.

When did you graduate, again?
Around ’81...I have my diploma in the bathroom at home, but I can’t remember the date on it!

Well, what do you remember about Columbia? Your fondest memories?
I just liked the physical plan of the campus. I spent a lot of time sitting on those [Low] steps. I remember sitting south, with the sun in your eyes, between classes. I loved the place. I’ve spent time in every neighborhood of New York, and I still think of the Upper West Side as ‘my New York.’ Columbia, the place, really became my entree to New York.

Quite an entree! Now, to Bryant Park. A lot of people underestimate how much goes into Fashion Week and the planning of fashion shows. There’s all the press, the celebrities, the clothes, and the parties, but what’s the purpose of putting on such a production?
The show serves a lot of functions. There are people who are using their well-known, well-attended, well-scheduled fashion shows as the ultimate expression of what their brand represents, to make a statement about what they foresee [their clients wearing] six months from now. For other designers, it’s a way to break in, to start to get some recognition for an unknown or an undiscovered brand. Sometimes, the show is the first significant step the company is attempting to make to break through the clutter and create some image, to create awareness for the brand name. And we work for both kinds of companies.

So how do you decide when a show in the tent makes sense for a company, versus a smaller presentation?
We try to work with clients who have a logical and strategic approach to their fashion show. We often counsel against showing. We feel as though companies aren’t sufficiently prepared, they’re not well-known enough, there are too many other competing forces during Fashion Week that are likely to interfere with their ability to break through.
Yes, there are a lot of “forces” during Fashion Week. Recently, a lot of industry members have been talking about the rise in celebrity attendance. Celebrities attract cameras, cameras make a fuss, and fusses tend to delay shows. Marc Jacobs last season waited over 40 minutes for Ashley Olsen to show up before finally starting the show without her, and Baby Phat got off to a rocky start in September when 50 Cent got into a brawl with an industry member over a front-row seat. I was sitting right behind him when things got out of control, and I found myself quite annoyed at the celebrity brown-nosing, though excited I was so close to the action. But when is enough enough? Is it more useful to have a celebrity in the front-row seat, who’ll get the show in the paper, or a buyer or magazine editor, who’ll get the clothes to the market?
The most important thing is that the mood of the show reflects what the brand is about. I mean, I would expect a scuffle with 50 Cent at the Baby Phat show—I would be disappointed if that didn’t happen there. That said, the Marc Jacobs show is a little bit over-the-top… There’s a lot of people competing for attention. Versus the Luca Luca show, or the Oscar de la Renta show where the audience is generally more mature, and it’s run more like a country-club dinner. Random celebrities don’t make sense at Oscar de la Renta, and they do make sense at Baby Phat. They [celebrities at the shows] generate publicity, but they should generate the right message about the brand. For instance, Doo.Ri doesn’t really need celebrities because she’s not trying to be a phenomenon or social. She’s not out chasing celebrities or courting favor with them. We don’t expect any celebrities at the show, and that’s fine for her and for the editors [in the audience]… It’s a very elegant, cool, calm presentation. And that’s the way the clothes are, that’s the way Doo.Ri’s personality is, and it wouldn’t ring true to the fashion media that’s been so supportive of her if the scene along the runway was like it is at Baby Phat. It doesn’t make any sense. There are other designers, though, like Heatherette, who we’ve worked with a number of times over the years, where that’s part of their brand ... that’s part of what you’re getting ... celebrities, flash bulbs, excitement ... And that’s perfectly appropriate for those brands.