Minneapolis / St. Paul Blog

MN Fashion Week: Runway Hits By Stacey Tuthill in Fashion Tuesday, Sep. 29 2009 @ 11:10AM

Emily Utne for City Pages

There should be a ribbon given to anyone who is able to successfully attend every MN Fashion event and live to tell about it. With more than twenty-five fashion events jammed into one week, it's enough to make the pros dizzy. There were some flops, some gasps and some cringes, but for the most part, Minn. fashion designers delivered the goods. For those of you who have vivid but cloudy memories of the pieces that made you swoon, here is an attempt to help spark that memory with some of the week's highlights.

The unofficial first show kicking off festivities was ENVISION. The majority of attendees donned the typical downtown gear of tight dresses, high heels and designer bags. The show's producers (Ignites Models, Inc.) went to great lengths to set the stage for a classy production getting the ambiance just right by flying in an electronic violinist to pump out live performances while the models walked.

PFT Couture showed a simple black dress with triangle patterns and a leather belt that was cranked up with a desperately exaggerated décolletage of black pedals. A seriously sharp attitude is sure to commence the second you slip into this piece.

Emily Utne for City Pages / PFT Couture

Emily Utne for City Pages / KJurek

Emily Utne for City Pages / Cliché

In a modern twist on Little Red Riding Hood, local designer Kimberly Jurek roughed up folk legend imagery by covering a stark white dress with a plaid hooded cape and black leather gloves. This is not a flash-in-the-pan cape; this hooded number is perfect off the runway this fall as a cover up over a casual sweater, 9:00-5:00 attire or a night out.

A refreshing change of pace to the easy beauty of ENVISON was the creepy defaced models cloaked in Tim Burton mystery brought to you by local boutique Cliche. The impact of this look caught the audience's attention fast and drew the eye to the sharp lines of the paid blouse worn with a tight black leather skirt. Partnering leather skirts with understated and reserved blouses take any potential Peggy Bundy reference out of the picture. Cliché houses a number of local designer goods and if they don't carry it, they have the insight to let you know how to track down coveted items from MN Fashion Week.

Emily Utne for City Pages / Seamstrix

Moving on to a show that trumped all other MN Fashion Week styles in the category of avante garde drama with twists of goth and uncomfortably honest S&M inspirations: Mackenzie Labine's Couture Noir. Even the average on-looker or curious college student walking by the Varsity Theater on this night could tell that it wasn't your mom's socialite fashion review. Couture Noir was an evening full of dark masquerade tones and heavy design concepts that were at times hard to swallow.

Local designer Melanie Rei's style for the Steamstrix label was strikingly odd but essentially wearable. As a look in its whole, this couture-crazed ensemble was intimidating -- exactly why it belonged at Fashion Week. However, upon closer inspection the jeweled top with delicate beading and chunky pearls could be more discreet by wearing it with a neutral pencil skirt or even fitted, high-wasted jeans - just not flesh-toned hot pants.

Emily Utne for City Pages / Danielle Everline

Emily Utne for City Pages / Elizabeth Chesney

Flat black, leather and cat-shaped masks compiled the look of Elizabeth Chesney's line. While the majority of her items were standard black gowns trimmed with leather accents, the most interesting feature of the set was a fringe, cuffed neckpiece that spiced everything up. Imagine, with this fringe choker, all those plain outfits that collect dust in your closet because they make you yawn of boredom could take on a new, edgy vibe. The real statement of the night came from Danielle Everline with this "Crap, I shouldn't have hunted with Cheney" look. Not at any other event did I witness a more intriguing prop like the pincushion model with arrows sticking out of her shoulder. Everline showed other stiff leather vests that were worn boxy on the models but none of them looked as cool as when accessorized with weapons.

Dread winter's arrival? You're probably not as bummed as the rest of your buds if you had a seat at Kimberly Jurek's solo show at the W hotel on Friday night. The key take-away was how to be fashionable when the weather tries to take you down. Jurek mixed luxe cocktail and holiday dresses with warm furs to combat dreary cold. Her line of front draped dresses all fell into beautiful shapes on the chest. Ruby3 will probably be backed up until spring with Anna Lee's line of fur hoods lined with fleece. The hoods were so versatile that they could be used as wraps, scarves, fastened around the front, back, you name it. Just don't wear the hood out in the woods or you'll end up with an arrow problem as seen in the previous photos.

Emily Utne for City Pages / KJurek

Emily Utne for City Pages / Renate Adjei Emily Utne for City Pages / Emma Berg

Emily Utne for City Pages / Jenny Carle

The best runway party of the week was SCENEASOTA. The warehouse space was packed, the air was hot and sticky, the audience styles were impressively unique and even a busload of fashion students from UW Stout made the trek to this must see show. Designer Renate Adjei showcased sheer blouses with African-inspired skirt prints and soft knit gloves and scarves in bold colors. Another way to get those breezy items in your wardrobe winter ready is to grab some these bright, knit, elbow-length gloves and create D.I.Y. sleeves.

In her debut show, Emma Berg showed eager on-lookers that she is dialed in when it comes to glamorous, avant-garde fashion. This look combines a white sequined top with a light sweater that hangs low and looks like it can be worn in a variety of ways for new, comfy twists. Pulling from her individual style catalog, Berg gathered and tailored slouchy pants into shapes that look like they were peeled directly from a high-fashion magazine. Hopefully this first show isn't her last and we see more of her three-steps-ahead fashion sense.

There were a few noted trends to report from MN Fashion Week: exposed zippers, gloves (leather and knit), plaid, fur and asymmetrical hems were all over the runways. Designer Jenny Carle uses dramatic red to showcase the exposed zipper in the back of this dress with a wonderfully tailored bodice. Carle's cute, floral, party dress summons the wrong side of the tracks with driving gloves and a heavy belt to accentuate the dress' shape.

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