It was recently announced that fashion week would be returning to Minnesota this fall. The following week, the Mall of America is getting into the act with its inaugural Fall Art + Style Series. Taking place September 30 through October 9, events will be held at the mall’s Rotunda and stores–and even a moving light-rail car. (More on that later.)
The series’ headlining event is “Curated Style,” a fashion show held in the mall’s Rotunda that will feature some of the most memorable Project Runway contestants to date. They include Minnesota’s own Christopher Straub, who came in fifth in the sixth season of the fashion reality show in 2009. Straub, who has served as a trend expert for the MOA over the past year, was clearly instrumental in bringing in the other designers, which include season-six winner Irina Shabayeva, season-five runner-up Korto Momolu (also a Project Runway All-Stars runner-up), and season eight’s Peach Carr and Michael Costello.
“I’ve been talking to the mall over the past year about what we could do there that hasn’t been done before, and I said, ‘Why don’t we bring in some of my Project Runway friends from around the country and do a show?'” Straub says. “I’ve worked with them all before in some capacity over the years—it’ll be like seeing old friends from college.”
He says the designers will all be showing their current fall collections. As for Straub, he’ll being debuting ten looks from his fall collection.
“It’s a really fantastic, diverse group of designers—all of them do different things,” he adds. “And what’s really cool, since the show is in the Rotunda, is that it’s free for anyone to come and watch.”
In other Straub news, the designer will be showing the second half of his fall collection at the “Silhouette” fashion show benefiting HopeWorks foundation on September 17 and emceeing the “Fall: Into Luxury” fashion show presented by Fashion Group International of Minneapolis-St. Paul on September 24.
As for the week’s other events, Chelsea Lankford of the popular local style blog True Lane will be hosting an event with make-your-own mini bouquets at the Free People store (Oct. 7), a DIY toddler fashion show (Oct. 6), murals painted by 32 local non-profits to be displayed in the new MOA expansion (Oct. 4), local artist Robin Ann Meyer creating abstract live painting while practicing yoga (Oct. 2), and the aforementioned light-rail fashion show, which will utilize Metro Transit’s Blue Line to showcase fall fashion trends from the MOA to downtown Minneapolis (Sept. 30). For a full schedule of events, visit mallofamerica.com/styleseries.