LA Fashion Girls

VCA Pictures

Genre: Feature

Director: Jim Holliday

Cast: Stacy Valentine, Mark Davis, Krista Maze, TT Boy, Laura Palmer, Peter North, Jill Kelly, Nina Hartley, Shayla LaVeaux, Anthony, Missy, Sahara Sands, Julie Rage, Caressa Savage, Kimberly Kupps, Militia, Kim Kitaine, Jake Steed, Eric Price
Non-sex roles: Veronica Hart, Root Loggins, Chanze

Length: 107.5 minutes

Date of Production: 1/1997 (box); 1/1998 (credits)

Extra's: There was a cast list (not a true one either), a photogallery, and a few trailers to movies.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: LA Fashion Girls was presented in the originally filmed 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as shot by director Jim Holliday for VCA Pictures back in 1996. The picture was always crystal clear, but still relying on a sense of raw energy rather than pure technical expertise, and had a wonderfully diverse cast as seen on the back of the DVD cover. The fleshtones were accurate thanks to the kind of flat lighting Jim used on the movie with no significant amount of grain or video noise to speak of observed during my screening of the flick. This was a departure from the fluffy bunny stories that Jim told as his career rose in the ranks of VCA; concentrating on a stalker story rather than just lots of silly snippets of sex and insider jokes though the ending was funny in how it wrapped up the story. The audio was presented in the usual 2.0 Dolby Digital English but the vocals appeared to be looped in a few cases, the dialogue pretty well handled, and it sounded hollow less frequently than previous efforts by the director. The music was trademark Jim Holliday style as provided by Dino Ninn and Earl Ninn with the first reference to Reno and the Rum Runners I recall ever being made in one of Jim's flicks. It wasn't the best track by the band but it was a notch above most of what was made then, and now.

Body of Review: VCA Pictures was one of the companies that understood very early in the DVD game how the genre was going to revolutionize porn, calling for their directors to use flat lighting and straightforward story telling techniques rather than get pretentious or artsy. One of their contract directors, Jim Holliday, fought for artistic control but didn't have to fight too hard as he made porn that sold, and used the company formula to full advantage. One of his offshoot movies that wasn't quite as fluffy as usual was LA Fashion Girls, a feature described on the back cover as: "With all the fancy adult fashion movies made over the past quarter of a century, here's one utilizing Jim Holliday's unique and delicate fashion sensibilities that is completely different. Not exactly low brow or no brow...but close, and proud of it. Cloyd Gidney is a fashion designer, but he's no Armani. He has one shot to impress garment mongul Mrs. Van Staver with a private showing but there's a monster on the loose terrorizing his models. Jim Holliday + high fashion = Hot Couture." That said, here's a quick look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that no condoms were used:

Scene One: Stacy Valentine, the hotty on the right hand side of the front DVD cover, was up first in a motel scene on a bed with Mark Davis. He picked her up on the side of the road where she was carrying a large sign saying: "Will Fuck For Food: And I Take It In The Ass" and wearing a shirt that barely covered her large implants with the words, "Got Milk?" on it. The thematic hilarity of the two signs aside for the moment, she was an up and comer at this point in her career, showing a wild sense of abandon in many of her scenes that she later lost when becoming too big a name (drugs or burnout being the most likely reasons why). The oral was short but sweet and he did most of the work during the screwing portion of the scene, including the anal before his modest pop shot. It wasn't a great scene for anyone other than slavering fanboys of hers but it was a decent opener before the credits ran.

Scene Two: Krista Maze, a gal next door redhead in a pink bikini, was up next on a bed as hairy TT Boy jumped her bones for a quickie. They didn't do oral with the scene lasting a few moments before he popped his load onto her face.

Scene Three: Laura Palmer, one of the rare European gals that Jim used, was up next in bed with Peter North as she masturbated with a small vibrator in her ass while he went down on her. She left her shiny pinkish purple top on as they went at it, moving to an active vaginal workout as a result. This was another scene that lasted moments and ended with him popping all over her face while she cleaned him off orally using some post coital sucking.

Scene Four: Jill Kelly, in some great looking black & white lingerie, was up next in a POV solo scene in the dressing room. I know some people think the point of view craze is brand new (I've seen black & white loops made prior to the 1950's with the camera angle as well as movies in the 70's and 80's) but if porn tells us anything else; it's that everything has been done before with different people. The solo scene was interesting as Jill actively masturbated with the vibrator to get off, using her talented oral skills to elevate the action too.

Scene Five: Nina Hartley, Shayla LaVeaux, and Anthony, were up next in a motel room setting where Nina wore a sexy black outfit, Shayla wore a tight striped get up, and Anthony wore their asses on his face as he went down on them. The trio all seemed to like providing oral sex with Nina donning a strap on dildo to do the first vaginal penetrative sex on Shayla before Anthony did Shayla himself. There were two pop shots but it wasn't the best scene by the ladies.

Scene Six: Missy, Sahara Sands, Julie Rage, Caressa Savage, Kimberly Kupps, Laura Palmer, and Militia, played a game where Missy was made to guess who was whom by taste alone while wearing a blindfold. The other ladies didn't feel obligated to wait their turn as they warmed up without her but it was an interesting little lesbian romp that emphasized rimming and tongue work a lot (this was a Jim Holliday flick after all) with a substantial amount of toy work tossed in for good measure. Yum!

Scene Seven: Kim Kitaine, Jake Steed, Julie Rage, Krista Maze, Peter North and TT Boy, were up next in a more balanced orgy that had the ladies pairing off to work the men fully. There was some anal this time and even a DP (with toy use providing some technical DP work) but the cameras moved around too much for me and the close ups were over used, reducing the heat.

Scene Eight: Jill Kelly, the hotty on the middle of the front DVD cover, Stacy Valentine, and then later Eric Price, were all up in the last scene of the day on a bed. The ladies seemed to enjoy working one another orally and with toys but still needed a cock to make the technical DP work. I liked this scene as much as a few of the others fell flat for me; making a good ending even though the previous scene was edited into this one (a big mistake in my book).

Summary: LA Fashion Girls wasn't the best work by Jim Holliday but it had some stroke value for those into the cast. It marked another departure from what he did best and helped to steer him back on path to the kind of movies he excelled at, and fans clamored for so while LA Fashion Girls was only worth a rating of Rent It from me, it served a purpose by aligning the elements just right for Jim's later successes. When he went too far from that formula, he usually did so at the expense of the chemistry and heat with movies like this one to remind him where his roots were. It had some impressive early performances by some attractive ladies but never tripped my trigger like his contemporary works of the time did.