FIDM covers the first stop on their nationwide tour

The one-day, once-a-year event Ritual Fashion & Music Expo was born when a cool concept exploded into a biannual music festival/fashion show/shopping spree with thousands of attendees. Ritual has teamed up with leading online music network ARTISTdirect.com to launch a national tour, hitting the nation's six most exciting fashion and music centers: Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco. The Expo brings together the finest fashion designers, record labels, DJs, magazines, web companies, and artists from each city in one fabulous daytime festival. The L.A. event was held at the Shrine Exposition Center on October 8th and featured lots of local talent!

L.A. fashion fever took over when the most anticipated event of the day drew everyone to the runway. The fashion show started off with a performance by female hip-hop artist Medusa. She gave the audience a piece of her musical mind as her strong voice and powerful lyrics blended perfectly with deep drum and bass rhythms. Ritual fashion models aren't your average runway gamines; these boys and girls had attitude! They hit the catwalk wearing clothes from cutting-edge clothing companies like A Liquid Affair, Hi-Roller, Snug, Twenty Five, 555 Soul, Private Circle, Ben Sherman, and SilverTab; accessories from Storm Watches and House of Custard; and shoes from Acupuncture and Royal Elastic. Glammed-up and ready to play, the models brought out the high-energy appeal of the outfits to the beat of some serious live techno/house vibes! The cool fashions represented an eclectic mixture of street wear, high fashion, and DJ gear.

TREND BITES

Edgy prints went from Japanese animation pictures to pixelized camouflage. Hot items for women included reptilian dresses, wrapped asymmetrical skirts, boot-cut jeans with gold and silver hip belts, baby-tees, fur-trimmed coats, and uniforms. Men's must-haves were hooded shirts, faux-fur shells, super-baggy utilitarian pants, and turtleneck sweaters in bright colors like Day-Glo orange. Everything seen in the show was available for purchase right there at the Expo. From street to skate to club to high-end, shoppers found anything and everything to complement their own personal style!