Avant Guardians

LAist needs to spend more time with our local design crowd. If Surface Magazine's Avant Guardian 2004 party (sponsored by Tanqueray's No. TEN) taught us anything, it's that the true glitterati of our city can be found at photo studios and warehouse parties well south of Sunset Strip.

Dressed to the nines, LA-based fashion designers, architects, photographers, and their friends entered Smashbox Studios and partied down. With just as many people outside in the smoking area as inside with the giant photo displays of this year's Avant Guardian work, we were reminded that there are just as many people in this town interested in being innovative and interesting as there are in being health-conscious and trendy. You just have to know where to look.

DJ Shinbad and his crew spun tracks as most of 2004's Avant Guardians walked through the maze of rooms meeting and greeting the attendees. The true party seemed to be near the DJ Booth where Michael Lachowski's photographs stood high and ladies found open space to dance. They begged for Prince, Prince, and more Prince giving a thumbs down and a wagging finger to Shinbad's desire to play some hot electroclash and indie dance grooves from Fischerspooner. He succumbed and the ladies responded in kind, writhing to "Erotic City" and "Kiss."

We guess even the trendsetters of the future can't be avant garde all the time. Despite their less than open-minded outlook on music to groove to, we happily brought them glasses of white wine and gin & juice and gyrated along with them.