Our all-access Fashion Week

Philadelphia Fashion Week - which begins tomorrow evening at the 23d Street Armory - offers all of the industry's familiar bells and whistles: lithe models, chic clothing, VIP lounges, and of course, after-parties.

But in addition to the divas and designers, the City of Brotherly Love's latest version of Fashion Week will include another element recently deemed equally important - access, by everyday consumers. And other cities are setting up similar runways, promoting their own vibrant regional fashion communities.

"We wanted our Fashion Week to be all-inclusive," said Michael Anderer, cofounder of Philadelphia's three-day fashion event. "Fashion is much more democratized. It doesn't live in a glass house where people can't get to it, and people want to participate."

That's typically how it has been. At the industry-standard New York Fashion Week, attendees must be invited to shows. Until recently, you couldn't even buy a ticket. For Philadelphia Fashion Week, you can easily purchase tickets on its slick Web site, www.philadelphiafashionweek.org, for $75 a day. (It's $150 for a three-day pass. Tickets at the door will be $100 per day.)

Yet this inclusive version has been several years in the making. Other organizers have tried unsuccessfully to get traction for an annual Philadelphia Fashion Week, but this year's event is expected to draw 2,000 daily attendees. It will feature the holiday 2009 and spring 2010 collections of 17 up-and-coming designers on a diamond-shaped stage with two 32-foot runways.

Organizers have secured more than 40 sponsorships from local and national businesses including Macy's, Amtrak, and Beautiful Blooms, the local company responsible for decorating the VIP lounges at New York Fashion Week.

Philadelphia University, Moore College of Art & Design, and the Art Institute will launch each night with student shows.

Nine of the designers are based in Philadelphia, including Craig von Schroeder's men's shirt line Commonwealth Proper; Sarah Van Aken, who turned Sansom Street into a runway for her store's grand opening last week; Melanie Brandon, whose ethereal Melani von Alexandria pieces have twice been featured at New York Fashion Week; and Kristin Haskins Simms, who will debut her contemporary women's collection Strangefruit on Saturday night.

"I hope this will bring me more notoriety and get me picked up by local boutiques," Haskins Simms said. "This is something that [the design community] has been waiting for for a while. This way you always don't have to rely on Paris and New York to show your work."

About 12 local apparel companies - including Duke & Winston and iPearl Fashions - will sell their fall merchandise in funky pop-up stores that will line the perimeter of the cavernous Armory. (Note: New York Fashion Week big-wig Marc Jacobs holds both his spring and fall presentations at the New York Armory on 26th Street. Maybe Philadelphians are on to something.)

David Evangelista, hair and makeup stylist to the stars, will emcee tomorrow night's presentations. And while New York Fashion Week regulars Kanye West and Beyoncé aren't expected to come, there will be local A-listers in the house, including nationally known DJs King Britt and Beverly Bond, former Eagles player Brandon Whiting, and Comcast sportscaster Steve Weissman.

Before Sex and the City and Project Runway, stylemakers used fashion weeks in London, Paris, Milan, and New York as a platform to present their latest collections solely to fashion journalists, department store and boutique buyers, and financial backers.

Since then fashion has grown beyond those epicenters. In the last couple of years, the same organization that produces New York Fashion Week began producing Miami and Los Angeles versions, where designers shell out tens of thousands of dollars to show.

At the same time, fashion communities in other American cities started building their own networks.

St. Louis Fashion Week is in its second year and designers there are showing spring collections next week. "We wanted a showcase that would be special to designers in the middle of the country," said Attilio D'Agostino, founder of St. Louis Fashion Week.

Other fashion weeks are being held in Portland, Ore., Detroit, and Boston. Dallas held its urban Fashion Week in August and will host a couture Fashion Week in February. Houston plans to host its first major Fashion Week in September.

These independently run, modern-day versions of Fashion Week tend to focus on cult brands and emerging indie designers and are more than runway presentations of next season's fashions. They include shopping.

This latest incarnation of Fashion Week is the brainchild of Anderer, buyer for cutting-edge boutique Matthew Izzo; Charlie Smith, an Art Institute student who has produced local fashion shows; and Kristie Bergey, owner of the KB Experience marketing firm.

The group began planning Fashion Week a year ago, soliciting runway designers - who won't have to pay to show - and clothing manufacturers and boutique owners who pay $600 for three-day pop-up shops.

It wasn't easy after other fashion events failed to gain a following. Last year, business partners Kerry Scott and Kevin Parker set up a runway in the City Hall courtyard for three days of shows featuring largely African American designers. The events were well-attended but local boutique buyers were sparse.

So far, this year's organizers have hit their own roadblocks trying to lure the New York fashion darlings with strong ties to Philadelphia. Designers like Tory Burch, Behnaz Sarafpour, and Stacey Bendet of Alice + Olivia already showed their spring 2010 collections in September and are in the midst of selling them.

And local marquee boutique owners of Joan Shepp and Knit Wit are busy in New York and overseas buying spring merchandise for their stores. Also, October is the beginning of the all-important fourth-quarter sales.

So they will forgo hosting a pop-up store and simply come to see the fashions.

"It's a great idea," said Third Street Habit's January Bartle, who won't be selling her wares on site but will attend the presentations. "I'm really impressed with their whole effort."

Even with some apprehension from established insiders, organizers have managed to drum up excitement through Facebook (currently there are 2,400 fans of Philadelphia Fashion Week), its Web site, and a 30-second TV commercial.

Organizers anticipate that the cost of the event will be more than $100,000, but sponsorships have covered nearly all of that so far. For instance, the Wilhelmina agency is providing 30 runway models.

"We want to do this every year," Bergey said. "We are trying to launch it big and make it happen for years to come."