AAPI-Centered Show Makes Fashion Week MN Debut

A Twin Cities makeup artist, Mao Xiong’s work takes her backstage at local fashion shows where she’s witnessed the growth of the local design community. But when it comes to her own community of Asian Americans, she thought the representation on the runway was lacking. Xiong decided to do something about it. She and fellow creative Kara Doucette, a chef specializing in Korean cuisine, came up with the idea of ​​producing an event that would showcase Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) talent from fashion to music to food. Called Coalescetheir inaugural fashion show—the first of its kind in the Twin Cities—takes place Saturday at Allianz Field, capping Minnesota Fashion Week.

A testament to the hunger for cultural diversity in the arts, Coalesce is already sold out. But the show will livestream at fashionweekmn.com.

More than a show, Xiong says she wants Coalesce to be a collective, building a movement for AAPI creatives that will lead to future events. The inaugural fashion show will feature nine designers, each bringing four to 12 pieces to the runway. Not only did co-producers aim for a wide range of designers and backgrounds, but they plan for the collections to be shown together, rather than as distinct lines—as is typical in many multi-designer shows—further accentuating the spirit of collaboration.

Behind the scenes, nearly 100 volunteers have been working to bring the collective to life, including the creative lead team, makeup artists, hair stylists, mixed-media artists, and models.

“It’s really great to see that a lot of these creatives and a lot of our team members, they took a chance on us,” says Xiong. “And we wouldn’t be able to do it without them—it wouldn’t be something people would want to come see without everyone that’s involved.”

In the week leading up to the show, Xiong and Doucette described the community reception to be extremely validating, especially as the show sold out both its general admission and VIP front-row tickets.

“It’s a show where we really just want a lot of positivity and representation. And with that, there’s like some anxiety because we want to do it right,” says Doucette. “But so far, people have just been so encouraging and rather than skeptical or judgmental, so just having that positivity really motivates me.”

Meet the designers and get a sneak peak of their runway designs.

Coalesce will be live-streamed on the Fashion Week MN website. A full tape of the show will also be publicly released and edited by a team of AAPI videographers.