Meet Mikey Koffman, The Driving Force behind LA Fashion Week and Star of Showtime's "The Real L Word"
Mikey Koffman is keeping busy these days but it's a pace that she's grown accustomed to. Before her foray into Fashion close to 10 years ago, Koffman was the first female to own a custom motorcycle shop in Long Beach -Sin Cycles. These days, you can catch her on Showtime's "The Real L Word" and preparing for LA Fashion Week in October. She's currently spearheading the growth and rejuvenation of this major event through her event production and marketing company (The Gallery).
First Impressions…
Talking to Mikey Koffman is like re-uniting with an old friend whom you haven't spoken to in a long while but everything seems to fall right into place the moment you say hello. She's a bundle of energy and you immediately feel at ease with her. Our conversation starts off like many do in L.A. - the crazy driving in this town. We run through everything from her passion for fashion to her style, her role on The Real L Word and of course celebrity. Our no holds barred interview not only features a rare insight into the fashion world but also shows a down to earth power house who's not afraid to speak her mind and a true advocate for Los Angeles Fashion. An hour later, we're all caught up and there's a slight pause, you realize you can't wait to do it again.
Her Passion for Fashion
"It's interesting because I'm somebody that's in jeans and a t-shirt every day. I'm really passionate about the production side of things. I love pulling together the designers and I actually helped start LA Fashion week on the roof of the Downtown Standard Hotel which was about 9 years ago. So I did that for about 71/2 years and then my company has picked it up and taken off with it for the past 2 years."
A true Angeleno with an East Coast attitude
"I used to have half of my business out on the East Coast for many years; I travel a lot to New York every year for events and stuff. I have to tell you one thing I appreciate about New York is the East Coast attitude. These guys either love you or they hate you and there's no in between. I just feel like that's how I've always been. I really appreciate East Coasters more than I appreciate my West Coasters (laughing). Either we're high-fiving or duking it out in the streets."
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
"I have thrown celebrities out of fashion shows. If you're rude and obnoxious and disrespectful to my team, I don't care if you are the Editor of vogue or you are fricking Angelina Jolie, it doesn't matter. We're all here to treat each other kindly at the runway shows, to have fun at our events. At the end of the day, the bulls--- attitude in our business, it's a joke to me."
Not taking Fashion too seriously
"It's funny because our job is not that serious. If you are not enjoying what you're doing and having fun at it, what's the point? People turn fashion into an emergency room crisis and it's actually not."
New York Fashion vs. L.A Fashion
"My company is built on being the polar opposite of what New York Fashion week is. It's about having fun, having a great time working with some great people. I'll work with 200 no-name brands as long as they're cool and fun and they're having fun working with us. I'd pick those brands over other brands that are big names with bigger egos and want to be just really commanding and dramatic. It's all about having a good time. We work with some great consumer brands out here on the West Coast. The thing that differentiates us is that we're doing consumer fashion out here. We're driving trends, we're driving what people are buying in the department stores and New York is driving a lot of ego and a lot of vanity projects. I love New York Fashion Week, I think it's beautiful but the stuff you see on the runway is not going into production. People aren't wearing it walking down the street. It's great and beautiful but I feel like what we're doing makes sense for the designers, for their buyers and the media."
