Auto Shoots Nothing New for 2nd Street Tunnel, But Fashion Shows?

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — L.A. Times auto writer Dan Neil's story this morning about the 2nd Street Tunnel and its prominent placement in car commercials focused on the unique properties that keep drawing automakers back.

It was the accompanying photo that drew my attention. A fashion show in the tunnel?

The caption run with the Times story simply says that "A model struts her stuff during a fashion show in the 2nd Street Tunnel in Los Angeles." Luckily, Apparel News provides more info on its blog this afternoon:

Although the story makes no reference to fashion (other than a generic caption), the photo is, in fact, from a 2004 Michelle Mason show.

That night, the tunnel was blocked on both ends with construction horses as a fashionable crowd filed in to take seats on benches set up in the tunnel’s center. As I recall, there was a slight delay to the show when a Los Angeles Fire Department truck pulled up to the Western barricade with lights and sirens blaring. In true blasé fashion form, we all remained in our seats and applauded the truck as it raced past.

Back on the topic of autos, Neil's story notes that recent automaker troubles have cut back commercial shoots, including those in the tunnel. He cites FilmL.A. as saying that no auto shoots have taken place in the tunnel in 2009. In fact, the tunnel broke that slump ten days ago, with a shoot for Mitsubishi.