The Lot
Studios
LA’s Runway
1041 N Formosa Ave
West Hollywood · Los Angeles
The Lot Studios is a working film and television production lot at 1041 N Formosa Ave in West Hollywood — with roots to 1912, the birthplace of United Artists in 1919, and the stages where Some Like It Hot and West Side Story were shot. It is the home of The Bureau’s Los Angeles Fashion Week: the October 16–18, 2026 season’s runway shows happen on a soundstage inside the lot. LA is a drive-to event — rideshare to the Formosa Avenue entrance, or park in the structures and streets nearby. Tickets aren’t on sale yet; the October waitlist gets first access.
The Lot Where Hollywood Declared Independence
Most fashion week venues borrow glamour. This one manufactured it. The lot at Formosa Avenue has been making pictures since 1912, when producer Jesse D. Hampton set up his studio on the site. Then, in 1918, the two biggest stars on earth bought it: Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who turned it into the Pickford–Fairbanks Studios — their own production kingdom at the edge of Hollywood.
What happened next changed the industry. In 1919, Pickford and Fairbanks — with Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith — founded United Artists from this lot: the first major studio owned by the artists themselves, built on the then-radical idea that the talent should control the work. The lot took the United Artists Studios name in 1928, and Fairbanks shot Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924) on stages guests now walk past on a show night.
The decades kept adding layers. After 1940 it became the Samuel Goldwyn Studio — a Pickford–Goldwyn ownership fight over it ran so long it ended in a court-ordered auction in 1955 — and its stages produced Some Like It Hot (1959) and West Side Story (1961). Later it ran as Warner Hollywood Studios, and since 2007 it’s been The Lot at Formosa: still a working production lot, still making film and television, and for one weekend in October, making a runway.
Why LA Fashion Week Runs on a Soundstage
Los Angeles fashion weeks have wandered — downtown warehouses, hotel ballrooms, event halls. The Bureau put its season on a working studio lot, and the reasoning compounds.
A soundstage is total control. It’s a purpose-built volume: vast, dark, acoustically dead, climate-controlled, engineered for one job — lighting a world into existence. A runway inside one isn’t fighting the room’s daylight, echo, or architecture; when the lights drop, nothing exists except what the production team built. It’s the same infrastructure Hollywood uses to make any world it wants, pointed at fashion for a weekend.
The address is the statement. For the designers on The Bureau’s calendar — hundreds each season across its three markets — showing where United Artists was founded puts their work inside a hundred years of the talent-owns-the-stage idea. LA’s fashion identity has always been tangled up with the industry; this lot is where that industry grew up.
One gate, the whole season. Every show of the October weekend happens inside the same lot — no cross-town sprints between venues, no re-parking between shows. Your whole fashion week lives at one address in West Hollywood, which is exactly what makes multi-show days workable in a driving city. (How the weekend itself flows — tiers, arrival, show-day rhythm — is in the first-time guide.)
How the Lot Works on a Show Day
On a show day, the gate at Formosa Avenue becomes the threshold between West Hollywood and fashion week. Ticket holders check in, cross a working studio lot — stages, production buildings, the everyday machinery of the industry — and arrive at the soundstage, where the season is built: runway down the middle, seating banks rising on either side, the photographers’ riser anchoring the end of the catwalk.
Seating follows The Bureau’s standard tiers in every market: Front Row VIP in row 1, close enough to read fabric texture; Reserved Seating in assigned rows behind; General Admission seated best-available within its section. Every tier watches the same runway in the same room — the difference is proximity and perks. In the March 2026 season, five shows ran across Friday evening and Saturday, with GA from $65; October’s calendar and pricing go to waitlist members first.
| The dates | October 16–18, 2026 — Friday through Sunday. Full show calendar releases to the waitlist first. |
| The room | A climate-controlled soundstage — steady and cool inside regardless of the October afternoon outside. Bring the layer. |
| Arrival | Doors open before each show — arrive with 30–45 minutes of margin for check-in and the walk across the lot. |
| Reference season | March 2026: 5 shows, Friday–Saturday · GA $65 · Reserved $95 · Front Row VIP $195–$295 per show. |
A Drive-To Fashion Week, Solved
Here’s the honest LA logistics picture: there is no subway stop near the lot — the closest Metro B Line station (Hollywood/Highland) is about two miles away — and nobody expects you to arrive by train. LA Fashion Week is a drive-to event, and the venue sits at one of West Hollywood’s easiest addresses to drive to: Formosa Avenue at Santa Monica Boulevard.
| Rideshare | The simplest play. Set your drop-off to the Formosa Avenue entrance — 1041 N Formosa Ave — and you step out at the gate. For evening shows, order the return ride before the finale walk ends and beat the surge. |
| Driving yourself | Parking is available in the area — structures nearby plus metered street parking in the surrounding blocks. Evening slots draw the biggest crowds; arrive with margin, and read the street signs like a local (West Hollywood enforces them like one). |
| Multi-show days | Park once. Every show is inside the same lot, so the gap between an afternoon and evening show is a neighborhood dinner window — not a re-parking problem. |
| Transit | Workable but indirect: Metro bus lines run Santa Monica Blvd, and the B Line is ~2 miles. If you’re transit-committed, budget the last leg as a short rideshare hop. |
One planning note for the week itself: October afternoons in LA run warm, evenings on an open lot turn cool, and the soundstage holds steady in between — the what-to-wear guide covers dressing for all three at once, and the car gives you a staging area New York guests can only dream about.
Formosa & Santa Monica: Old Hollywood’s Corner
The lot’s corner of West Hollywood carries its history in plain sight. Directly adjacent stands the Formosa Cafe — a 1925 Hollywood landmark that spent decades as the studio’s unofficial commissary bar, pouring for the stars working across the wall. A pre-show drink there isn’t a detour from the fashion week experience; it’s a continuation of what this block has always done.
Beyond the corner, you’re in the thick of West Hollywood’s eating and drinking geography: the Santa Monica Boulevard corridor runs right past the lot, and Melrose Avenue — LA’s most fashion-literate shopping street — is minutes south. The gap between an afternoon and an evening show is a genuine neighborhood window, not dead time in a parking structure.
Before the Show
A drink at the Formosa Cafe — the 1925 landmark next to the lot — or coffee along Santa Monica Blvd. Arrive at the gate with 30–45 minutes of margin.
Between Shows
West Hollywood’s restaurant range is a few minutes in any direction — and your car is already parked. The afternoon-to-evening gap is a built-in dinner window.
The Photo Walk
Golden hour hits the lot’s gates and the Formosa corner beautifully — the best exterior content of the weekend happens in the hour before an evening show.
Making a Weekend
Melrose shopping south, the Sunset Strip north, and the whole of LA radiating out from a venue that’s easy to base a trip around.
What Else to Know Before You Go
It’s a working studio. The Lot isn’t normally open to the public — active film and television production runs there year-round — which is part of what makes a fashion week ticket special: it’s one of the rare ways through the gate. During show days, entry is for ticket holders. Anyone can attend — no industry credentials or invitation required — and every attendee needs a ticket regardless of age (LAFW is primarily an adult event; guests over 12 may attend with an adult, 16+ recommended).
Photos: personal phones and cameras are welcome from every tier, and the runway under soundstage lighting is one of the most photogenic rooms in fashion. The working-lot part matters, though — shoot the show, the entrance, and the guest areas, and follow staff guidance beyond them. A film crew may genuinely be working two stages over.
Accessibility: The Lot Studios is an established production facility that regularly accommodates guests with accessibility needs at events. If you have specific mobility or seating requirements, contact The Bureau after booking so arrival and seating can be planned in advance rather than improvised on show day.
And the ticket itself: October 2026 tickets haven’t been released. When they drop, waitlist members see pricing and the full show calendar first — in the March 2026 season, GA ran $65 per show. Join the waitlist here, and see the March 2026 schedule archive for what a season looks like.
See the Soundstage From a Seat
Los Angeles Fashion Week · October 16–18, 2026 · The Lot Studios, West Hollywood. A runway inside a century of Hollywood history — tickets not yet released, waitlist gets first access.
Join the October Waitlist