L.A. designer Corey Lynn Calter hosted an intimate dinner and fashion presentation last night inside a stunning empty storefront on Melrose Place last night (the space is owned by antique company Rose Tarlow.)

The contemporary designer, who’s famous for her kicky silhouettes and retro prints, eschewed a traditional runway show and the always-stagnant model presentation in favor of a short film that was screened across three walls.

The celluloid models marched in a semi-circle across all three walls — dressed in Calter’s  Spring 2010 collection. When they hit the middle screen, they were each asked a question: City, beach or country? “Country.”; Where are you from? “Russia.”

The collection was quintessential Corey — printed maxi dresses, canary-yellow short-shorts and flouncy little dresses were girly without delving into the syrupy-sweet.

After the presentation, guests — including Shiva Rose, Amanda Luttrell Garrigus and Rachel Leigh Cook, retailers Rose Apodaca and Andy Griffith of A+R, Cameron Silver of Decades and Hillary Rush, and fashion journos Tasha Nita Adams (Blackburn and Sweetzer), Laurie Pike (Los Angeles Magazine) and Melissa Magsaysay (Los Angeles Times) — sat down at two candle-lit tables to feast on skirt steak and cod.

Calter, who conceptualized the filmed fashion show with her husband, Glen Kainos (who co-founded now-defunct Uber.com), said creating the film was a little like “driving and not knowing where you’re going. I sketched it all out beforehand and came up with a list of questions. We thought, maybe this will work, maybe it won’t.”

–Emili Vesilind

Photos, from top: One wall of the multi-wall filmed fashion presentation; the dinner table.