Pepperdine Graphic Goes Beyond the Runway at Los Angeles Fashion Week

Los Angeles Fashion Week has always moved to its own rhythm — looser, more colorful, and closer to the street than its counterparts in New York and Paris. The Pepperdine Graphic sent reporter and photographer Dalainey Moore inside the October 2026 season to capture why that difference matters.

In “Beyond the Runway: Los Angeles Fashion Week Empowers Emerging Creatives,” the Graphic reports from Los Angeles Fashion Week, produced by The Bureau Fashion Week and staged October 16–18 at The Lot Studios in West Hollywood — a working film and television production lot that gave the runway an intimate, cinematic atmosphere and brought guests closer to the models and the clothes.

I’ve experienced a lot of Fashion Weeks in Paris, New York and here in Los Angeles. This one is really great because it mixes urban street[wear] with something very elegant.

Fanny Roth — Fashion Week attendee and photographer, in the Pepperdine Graphic

01A Launchpad for Emerging Designers

The Graphic frames Los Angeles Fashion Week as exactly what The Bureau built it to be: a launchpad — an experimental, innovative environment where emerging designers can debut collections and establish their place in the industry.

02Representation on the Runway

The piece spotlights how LA’s diverse fashion scene lets designers draw directly from their cultural heritage — from Toshimi Pacumbala Atelier’s whimsical Filipino couture and pageant gowns to the platform Los Angeles Fashion Week gives Black designers to share their perspective on where LA fashion is headed.

I love that we saw a lot of black designers today. I love how you could see how each individual designer put themselves into their designs.

Arianna Jackson — student journalist, in the Pepperdine Graphic

03Beyond the Runway

True to its title, the story follows the people building careers around the runway, not just on it — student journalists covering Los Angeles Fashion Week as a stepping stone toward New York, photographers documenting the collections for audiences worldwide, and aspiring creatives using the event to step into the greater Los Angeles fashion scene.

Read the full story at the Pepperdine Graphic →