Well, Cincinnati Fashion Week officially kicked off in style! On Tuesday, I went to the CFW Designer Meet and Greet night at FBs downtown on Sixth St.

I was so disappointed because I worked late and didn’t get to stop home and change before going to the party. Normally I wouldn’t care. But I was wearing boring work-wear, which looked especially boring next to everyone’s fabulously fashion forward outfits at the event. Ugh, oh well.

I was so proud of Cincinnati as I looked around the room. It was like I stepped into another dimension at that party. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Cincinnati anymore… Seriously, everyone was dressed to the nines, taking fashion risks (except for me, grrr) and meeting people outside their usual social networks. Hey, you didn’t know who you’d run into there! You could be meeting the next Diane Von Furstenberg! That room was full of all the things people say Cincinnati isn’t capable of. But we did it. And everyone there learned that the Queen City is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like us! haha! : )

I didn’t get to do much meeting and greeting at the event unfortunately. I couldn’t tell who the designers were. But I did get into some interesting conversations with people. One of which asked me who I was most excited to see at Friday’s Fashion Week Finale.

I all the sudden understood how men get so passionate about their sports talk. I completely unloaded on this girl, John Madden style: “Well, I feel like the crowd favorite is David Meister. He’s got a good offense with his evening gown line – the bold jewel tones were a nice play there – and he’s scoring some major points with those one shoulder cocktail dresses. But I’m going with our hometown hero, Amy Kirchen, rookie designer of the new Cincinnati-based ALK Fashion. Her post-world war designs are a huge touchtown with the emerging military trend, but she runs it down the field with romance and wearability I haven’t seen elsewhere. She’d be my first draft pick given the choice.”

It was an out-of-body experience.

Naturally, I didn’t REALLY say all of that. I just said “David’s everyone’s favorite because he’s the headliner, but I’m more excited to see all the Cincinnati talent, especially ALK Fashion.”

I got the opportunity to meet Kirchen a little more than a year ago. She told me she wanted to start her own business, and she picked my brain (not sure she found much) because I had started Cincy Chic a couple years prior. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. At the time, she wanted to do something that incorporated makeup, modeling and design. But we caught up for coffee a few months later and she decided to just do the fashion line.

And since then, she’s worked like a mad woman coming up with her company’s name, website, and all the designs in her first-ever line which will be unveiled at CFW. Oh, and by the way, she also just got married and had a beautiful baby girl. Talk about a super woman.

On a personal and professional level, I’m very excited to see this talented young woman blossom. She is one to keep your eye on for sure.

I hope you’ve purchased your ticket to CFW’s Finale. It will be epic to see Cincinnati’s own Kirchen, as well as all the other designers who’ve come from all over the world, showcase their new designs on the catwalk this Friday. Congrats to all the organizers for planning it, all the designers for participating in it, and to Cincinnati for supporting it.