Fashion Week Highlights MN's Emerging Style Scene

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Twin Cities may not be New York, Hong Kong, Montreal, London, Paris, or Tokyo. But Minnesota does has a budding fashion scene.

Local designer Lisa Hackwith of Hackwith Design House is one of those emerging designers. She was trained as a studio artist but found success in her self-taught sewing hobby.

"I always thought I was going to be an artist. I still am, I just found my right medium," she said.

Her easy shirts and dresses are wearable and chic. As she puts it, her designs are "something you'll always feel comfortable in, whether dressing up or dressing down."

The Hackwith Design House Spring 2014 collection will debut on the runway Sept. 25 as part of Minnesota Fashion Week.

A signature feature of this collection is Hackwith's splattered bleach technique -- a technique she says is easy enough for anyone to do, even an amateur like Natalie Nyhus. (You can see the results of her attempt in the video above.)

Hackwith has an interesting strategy with her design. She finds a fabric she likes and makes as many piece as she can out of it. So if she can get 13 shirts out of it, that's it. Each one is numbered and she will never make that piece again. So you're getting something really exclusive.

Hackwith will be showing her collection at Aria in the North Loop on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.