Retro and futuristic war-inspired looks open L.A. Fashion Week

CULVER CITY, Calif. – Military-inspired collections that looked back and to the future opened L.A. Fashion Week, with Collection bebe offering edgy space-age designs, and Dina Bar-El showing clothes that dripped 1940s glamour.\nTheir runway presentations Sunday helped launch the first of five days of fall fashion shows.\nCollection bebe’s ultramodern “War and Peace” collection was all about sharp lines, slick textures and sleek shapes, with the peace symbol as a graphic theme.\n“It’s war and peace in more of a literal sense, rather than the Tolstoy novel,” designer David Cardona said before the show. “It’s not period. It’s a little toy soldier meets a sexy little girl and becomes a peaceful angel.”\nThe star-studded front row at Smashbox Studios included bebe spokeswomen Eva Longoria and Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O’Connell (Romijn’s fiance), Virginia Madsen and Penny Marshall. Marshall said she was sporting some fashion of her own design: custom-made, blue-sequined Converse sneakers.\nThe bebe collection was heavy on leather, zippers and hoods in shades of khaki, black, red and Army green.\nA black and red leather minidress was trimmed with a hood and gold zippers, plus a scarf with a peace sign. Zippers and black leather made up the asymmetrical neckline of a silky floor-length gown, with another zipper cutting a thigh-high slit in front.