ONLY IN L.A. IT'S HAUTE TIMES AS CELEBRITIES TURN CLOTHES-MINDED.

Byline: ENID PORTUGUEZ AND NANCY DILLON

Staff Writers

Where else but L.A. would porn star Jenna Jameson be the darling of fashion week?

Jameson sat front and center at the two hottest tickets in town, demurely watching the "Imitation of Christ" show at Smashbox Studios and catching Paris Hilton on the 2Be Free catwalk. In a conservative little black dress, Jamison was photographed on the sidelines coming up for air during make-out sessions with Ultimate Fighting champ Tito Ortiz.

With a chic new bob reminiscent of Posh Spice, Jameson is just another member of the blond brigade that's traipsing back and forth from show to show this week.

Rounding out the brigade are infamous party girl Tara Reid, "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere and former "24" cutie Elisha Cuthbert, who cheered her new buddy Hilton from the sidelines as Brandon Davis threw a fit over his second-row seat.

Let's face it, L.A.'s fashion week -- which wraps up a season that wends from New York to London, Paris and Milan -- is more about its laid-back party spirit and celebrity drama than shaping global trends.

It's a twice-a-year event (the spring show previewing fall fashions and vice versa) that gathers the fashion cognoscenti in Culver City, of all places. Visitors to the Smashbox Studios tents are just as likely to rub elbows with cute local surfer boys as they are to meet high-powered fashionistas. Rosemary-infused tequila cocktails and Tab energy drinks are the elixirs of choice.

L.A. Fashion Week's beginnings can be traced back to the late 1990s with independently produced runway shows scattered throughout town and a collective stint at the Downtown Standard. It wasn't until mega-management company IMG took over the production reins in 2003 that the event began to capture public interest.

Along with main sponsors Mercedes-Benz and Smashbox Cosmetics, IMG has wrangled formidable L.A.-based design talent throughout the years, including Louis Verdad, Jenni Kayne and Kevan Hall.

For her show on Sunday, lingerie designer Dina Bar-El kicked off with a three-piece jazz band and a burlesque dancer from the popular Hollywood club Forty Deuce. Extraordinarily limber and deliciously vampy, the dancer sashayed across the runway, executing somersaults while stripping down to a garter and pasties. The audience's male contingent, which included *NSYNC's JC Chasez, never enjoyed a fashion show so much.

Collection Bebe's runway show, held immediately after Bar-El's, used a more traditional tactic to garner buzz: celebrity endorsers. "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria, and actresses Rebecca Romijn and Virginia Madsen set off a paparazzi frenzy.

On Monday, underwear line 2(X)IST brought the Laker girls out for a pre-show performance, a ploy that was plenty of fun but didn't make much sense considering that the entire show consisted of chiseled, half-naked male models.

Ed Hardy, the popular rock-influenced T-shirt and jeans line, held a circus complete with a bright red runway, a model dressed as a magician and a ballerina dancing en pointe.

Designer Joseph Domingo pulled a shock-and-awe move by taping sheer, flesh-color masks across the models' eyes, creating a look straight out of an avant-garde horror movie. The moved prompted a collective gasp from an audience that spent more time anxiously awaiting an accident than analyzing the clothes. "I don't think I can focus on anything else," a guest said. Alas, the hope of shouting the line "She's fashion roadkill!" from "Sex and the City" was dashed. Each model safely made it up and down the runway without incident.

The eerie theme continued at the highly anticipated Imitation of Christ show. The edgy yet sophisticated line from designer Tara Subkoff was Gothic glam at its finest, from the models' jet-black lipstick to the human bones strategically scattered across the runway.

Subkoff often shows in New York, but she still managed to "go Hollywood" for some aspects of the presentation. Walking down a runway in ill-fitting shoes is already a difficult task, but Subkoff's models also had to carry Samsung's Nouveau Noir phone and dodge vertebrae while fake dialing. Filling the front-row seats were Cuthbert, "Heroes" star Ali Larter and "Big Love" actress Ginnifer Goodwin.

"It was beautiful and interesting," said Goodwin, who's now dating Katie Holmes' ex-fiance Chris Klein. "I was especially fond of her gold pieces. My favorite was the mini with the ruching on the bum."

L.A. Fashion Week will end Thursday, wrapping up with shows from Rami Kashou, denim line Monarchy Collection, Ed Hardy's high-end line Christian Audigier and red-carpet favorite Kevan Hall.

Enid Portuguez covers fashion in the LA.comfidential blog on LA.COM.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Heiress Paris Hilton takes a model turn as she walks the runway at the 2 B Free fashion show at Boulevard3 nightclub in Los Angeles on Monday.

Dan Steinberg/Associated Press

(2) Actress Elisha Cuthbert, Director Liz Goldwyn and actress Ali Larter, from left, watch the Imitation of Christ fashion show.

Michael Buckner/Getty Images

(3) Adult-film actress Jenna Jameson caused quite a stir at the 2 B Free fashion show at Boulevard3 nightclub in Los Angeles on Monday. She set photographers' light bulbs flashing during L.A.'s fashion week.

Dan Steinberg/Associated Press