April 18, 2002

It's safe to say that Fancy -- a weeklong celebration of sound and style that kicks off in these parts on Sunday, April 21 -- has very little to do with Fashion Week, which is held in Paris each spring. Now in its sixth year, Fancy probably won't attract too many name-dropping celebrity types, nor will it feature toothpick-thin models with chiseled cheeks and amphetamine-laced blood. Held in the Snake Pit and largely inspired by local talent, this is a Denver thing; Gwyneth "Droopy Boobs" Paltrow and dear old Madonna just wouldn't understand.

Still, Fancy, the largest event of its kind in Colorado, will draw plenty of fashionistas and cultural tastemakers to nightly programs that acknowledge the inextricable link between fashion and electronic and dance music. After all, if all the regular world is a stage, then all the club world is a catwalk; outside of the Saturday brunch at Bump & Grind, where else but on the dance floor are you going to wear your latex body suit or twelve-inch lace-ups? For seven fanciful nights, Fancy will present fashion shows that highlight local designers (including Soulflower, Gino Velardi, Fashionation, Soul Haus) and salons (Babooshka and Planet Laboratories are among those doing the coiffeurs), as well as DJs from all over: Brian AKA Seed (of the Los Angeles-based Moonshine collective), San Francisco's Jeno, NYC's Adam X and Philadelphia's Tigerhook Corp. are among those scheduled to spin deep house, funky techno and Brit pop. As a happy side note for younger fashion hounds, Sunday's event -- with British DJ Frances James, clothes by Buffalo Exchange and hair by Evolution -- is all-ages. Even Burlesque As It Was, Denver's diva-tastic purveyors of good old-fashioned striptease and stylish smut, will join in. (See www.snakepitdenver.com for all the nightly lineups.)

"It's youth culture, dance culture, fashion, even hip-hop. Everything is just colliding," says Snake Pit promotions director J.R. Spiegel, who conceived this year's Fancy with partner Jessica Hydle. "It's an opportunity for people to see stuff that directly affects their lives. Stuff that normally used to happen just on the coasts, it's happening here now, and people can come and see it and be a part of it.

"Denver's always been a little bit behind," he adds. "People tend to dismiss us because the perception is that we're in the middle of nowhere. But I think we've got a lot more going on than what's happening on either of the coasts."

Spiegel, who is likely to be most familiar to non-Snake Pit crowds as the entertainingly spastic lead singer of the (sadly defunct) Volts, is nearly giddy when describing this pret-a-porter package. "Personally, I've always been on a rock tip," he says. "But I've always known fashion, too. Everything is now a hodgepodge, anyway. Our event lets them kind of sample stuff; they can see seven amazing DJs for a really cheap door price. That, really, is ridiculous."