There hasn't been a weekend in recent memory so chock-full of tasty sample sales. Here's our curated hit-list:

Showroom Seven sample sale Friday through Dec. 22:  Get 80% off wholesale prices on brands including Odd Molly, Erickson Beamon, Orla Kiely, Issa, Tony Cohen, Bloch shoes and Charlotte Ronson at this showroom event that's open to the public.

Cooper Building, 860 S, Los Angeles St., Mezzanine Three, Los Angeles. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays only. For more info: (213) 316-0112

Animal Advocates Alliance sample sale Saturday: Come support the Animal Advocates Alliance at this annual group sample sale featuring 30% to 50% off apparel from LNA (mens and women's), jewelry by Nola Singer, Cleobella purses and wallets, Chic & You Shall Find vintage clothing and Bailey Blue dresses.

715 North Foothill Road, Beverly Hills. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Elizabeth and James sample sale Friday: The Olsen twins' second-tier collection hosts a sample sale downtown.

Cooper Building, 860 S. Los Angeles St.,  Suite 415, Los Angeles. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent, Mike & Chris, Patterson J. Kincaid, La Rok sample sale Friday: Fabulous contemporary brands come together for a mega-sample sale.

Cooper Building, 860 S. Los Angeles St., Suite 422, Los Angeles. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Kain sample sale Friday: Chi-chi T-shirt-centric brand Kain is practically giving away its spring and summer tees, tanks, dresses — with discounts up to 80% off retail. Fall merch (sweaters and jackets) will be discounted up to 50% off). 

Cooper Building, 860 Los Angeles St., Suite 505, Los Angeles. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

510 Hewitt St., Suite 506, Los Angeles. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Corey Lynn Calter sample sale Friday and Saturday: Score past-season looks marked down to as low as $10 from L.A. designer Corey Lynn Calter.

719 S. Los Angeles St., Suite 807, Los Angeles. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. 

Designer Brian Lichtenberg and fast-fashion retailer Forever 21, both L.A.-based brands, have collaborated to create a T-shirt line featuring Lichtenberg’s '80s-inspired hipster aesthetic and, of course, his penchant for using his own initials in his designs.

Known best for his edgy, over-the-top ideas (like Lady Gaga’s caution tape outfit in her “Telephone” video) as well as his glittery Grace Jones-esque asymmetrical mini dresses, Lichtenberg didn’t seem short on fun ideas when it came to the Forever 21 collection.

The line of men’s and women’s graphic T-shirts and tank tops launches on Aug. 13 and include dripping print graphics, crystals and a nod to the aforementioned caution-tape look.

Though, to wear these Ts, you’ll have to be OK with Lichtenberg’s initials. “BL” is splashed across many of the styles in a major way.

The T-shirts, going for $14.80 for women’s and $14.90 for men’s, will be available in select Forever 21 locations.

Melissa Magsaysay

Photo: Images of the Brian Lichtenberg for Forever 21 collaboration/Forever 21

I received an e-mail Thursday from Aero & Co. owner Alisa Loftin saying she was closing up shop on March 28 after 10 years of business.

It's unfortunate that Aero & Co. would shutter its retail shop during this particularly blah and disjointed Los Angeles Fashion Week. A decade ago, in its first incarnation on Los Feliz's Kingswell Drive, Aero & Co. debuted the brightest generation of L.A. designers in recent memory with informal trunk shows from Magda Berliner, Jasmin Shokrian and Rami Kashou. The store also introduced to a wider audience Cynthia Vincent (whom Loftin originally worked with as a publicist), Unholy Matrimony, Grey Ant and Jared Gold.

In July 2002, Loftin relocated Aero & Co. to West 3rd Street to entice a Westside clientele in a location only a short drive from Los Feliz; however, as Loftin put it, the "core Eastside customer wasn’t going over to the Westside." The store still stocked up-and-coming L.A. designers such as Brian Lichtenberg, but the 3rd Street customer wasn't necessarily shopping for edgy local fashion.

”West 3rd Street was the only street in Los Angeles I would have ever considered moving to from the Eastside, because of its independent spirit and character," said Loftin. "My only regrets were the unintended consequences of leaving the Eastside community behind. I really expected them to follow us to West 3rd Street in greater numbers."

Loftin hasn't abandoned retail entirely -- an e-commerce site is in the planning stages. She's also looking into a private label venture for young L.A. designer Maxine Dillon, who also worked in sales at Aero & Co.

8403 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (323) 653-4651. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

-- Max Padilla

Tonight, the Echo Park Independent Co-op, or EPIC, celebrates its grand opening with a fiesta to benefit Million Trees L.A., an initiative launched by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to more our city greener. Forty local designers and brands are participating, including Brian Lichtenberg, Endovanera, Smoke & Mirrors and Alison Burns' Philip and Lillian handbags. Ten percent of sale proceeds will go to Million Trees L.A. and 100% of sales from the companion art show will benefit the organization. The event also bills DJs, complimentary cocktails (to those over 21 with ID) and a plethora of food trucks

1712 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

-- Max Padilla

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Los Angeles’ fractured fashion week -- which felt as if it lasted a month by the time it was all over -- finally ended in earnest Saturday night with the second night of shows from newly formed CoLA. (For a review of opening night, click here).

Joyrich was first out of the gate with a runway show at the Lady Liberty Building downtown, and although the show notes gave a nod to 1990s street culture, from where we sat it looked like the designer was borrowing liberally from the more recent seasons at Louis Vuitton -- Sprousian graphics and a riff on the textured checkerboard Damier print in particular.

Brian Lichtenberg's collection was tribal glamazons gone wild; tall models striding in shaggy fur footwear and horned headdresses that felt like Monty Python's "Knights Who Say Ni" by way of "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman." The combination of furs, skintight, body-baring wrappings and towering shag-shoes made for one of the more visually arresting shows of the week.

The hour and a half scheduled between the two shows afforded ample opportunity for people watching, and the denizens of downtown (and their invited guests) certainly didn't disappoint; sporting bandleader jackets, feathered mullet hair clips, spiky metal headdresses and armor-plate shin guards.

But our favorite signature look of the night was  simple, old-school rockabilly swirl; Nelson Aguirre, a 23-year-old Angeleno who works for KISS-FM, showed up sporting a choreographed 'do worthy of Bob's Big Boy. 

"I have a little James Dean obsession and a little Elvis thing going on," he told us between shows, explaining that he crafts his coif with a mixture of hair glue and Aqua Net. "Some days it takes me 15 minutes, some days it takes me 45."

In a way, Aguirre's molded mane is a good analogy to this season's series of fashion-related events. Each show, each designer, each venue and organization grew as an individual hair; each one headed in its own direction. The result? A bad case of bed head. But just spend a little time and effort to craft, tease and shape the various strands in the same direction and the results could be truly impressive.

Now it seems all L.A. Fashion Week needs is someone with that industrial-strength can of Aqua Net.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photos: Top, a look from Brian Lichtenberg's Fall 2009 runway show at CoLA Fashion Week on March 21, 2009, and, bottom, Nelson Aguirre with his molded mane. Credit: Adam Tschorn.

Break out the pencils, scratch pads and desk calendars; another group has sprung up to fill the void during what once was Los Angeles Fashion Week.

An organization calling itself the City of Los Angeles Fashion Week (COLA) issued a news release today announcing plans for two days of invitation-only runway shows to be held Friday, March 20, and Saturday, March 21, at an as-yet undisclosed downtown location. 

This is not to be confused with the BOXeight/Gen Art trio of runway shows scheduled for the previous Friday (March 13), the BOXeight-organized shows on Saturday and Sunday (March 14 and 15) or the Downtown LA Fashion Week event expected to unspool at the MOCA at the Geffen on Thursday, March 19 (and possibly on Wednesday, March 18, as well).

And despite its official-sounding name, it has no affiliation with the city of Los Angeles government, or the mayor's office, which has long been vocal about bringing fashion events to downtown L.A. "It influenced our name but that's it," said freelance publicist Jess Kane, one of COLA's founders. "We just wanted to represent the city in the name [we chose]."