Sooo, what I've been slaving over all Thanksgiving, is getting our first project as the Los Angeles Fashion Council off the ground! And it's super exciting! Inspired by the London Show Room visit to Los Angeles we've decided to give them the same treat – and send our most talented designers to London – simply to show off! (and hopefully make some sales for the designers too!)

Obviously funding this is not going to easy, especially given the lack of support from local and national agencies that are supposed to support this kind of thing (the London Show Rooms were sponsored in part by the Mayor of London and the European Union…we can only dream) so we're looking to the folks that love Los Angeles, and the fashion it produces, to help out.

We've started a Kickstarter fund to raise our funds – and we have $10,000 to raise before January 10th! Help?? Anyone can donate any amount to the cause – and donations greater than $25 receive rewards from limited edition sketches, reclaimed cashmere scarves by Mila Hermanovski, an Alana Hale dress, Bryan Hearns jewelry, new designs from Curly V and much more. The full list of reward levels and rewards can be seen on the Kickstarter page.

The plan of course is to send five designers to London, four have been pre-selected; Mila Hermanovski, Bryan Hearns, Alana Hale and Curly V – the last spot will be filled through a Facebook contest launching today. The ten designers with the most votes will be judged by a panel of esteemed members of the Los Angeles fashion industry and one will be selected to join us in London.

Designers can submit their work for the contest on our Facebook application and you can vote your favourite through January 10th.

If you'd like to spread the word for us – I've put together a whole bunch of badges for you to share on your own sites – you can gather them here.

Let's make it abundantly clear that style starts in Los Angeles – and that we're not all flip-flop footed, Ed Hardy wearing, fashion nobodies ;)

Kelsi xx