Today marks the beginning of the first-ever Missouri Fashion Week, which is taking place here in St. Louis.
The four-day event will incorporate the work of nearly 20 designers, and each show will help promote a local nonprofit.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch fashion editor Debra Bass says that this event could help demonstrate what a creative hub the city is, and encourage more people to stay and produce their work:
“Not every designer has to be in New York or LA, they can be in St. Louis and make a living. If you have creative types in a community, it just increases the likelihood that other creative types will say ‘Well hey, that town doesn’t look so bad,” she says. All of the week’s events will be held at The Moto Museum in Grand Center.
In addition to a nightly themed runway show, there will be an evening marketplace that will feature vendors from Missouri, Indiana, Texas, and Illinois. Lieutenant governor Peter Kinder issued a proclamation for the event earlier this month.
Bass says that this event can be key in figuring out what designers will need in order to build their brands.
“I think that that’s kind of a goal is to have the event, sustain it, and then start figuring out what these designers need to be successful. If somebody can figure out that piece, I’d be very excited because that’d be very good news for St. Louis.”
The unaffiliated St. Louis Fashion Week, which features over 30 designers, will take place in September.