Forget New York. Major fashion designers ought to take their collections on the road. (Imagine: "Now playing in Dubuque: Michael Kors Fall '09!!!). They've been talking about selling tickets to Fashion Week anyway – it's not that much of a leap. Let's just take Minneapolis, for example. We've got fab venues, from museums to hotels, to stage shows – and it's got to be less expensive than the Bryant Park tents. We've got local hairstylists who travel to NY to participate – keep 'em home. And we've got interest. Oh, do we ever. I attended Saturday's Envision Spring '09 at the Graves Hotel. And besides wondering why the show needed to start at 11:20 p.m., I found myself more captivated by the crowd than the runway. Not to slight the participating designers and boutiques – they're great and working so hard to put Mpls on the map for fashion design. But we're still a small scene, and if you attend local shows regularly, they start to look the same. Same small handful of designers (pictured: Joynoelle – which should have been the finale, not the opening). Same unimpressive models. Yet every event – and get ready, we're headed into MN Fashion Week – draws a major crowd. Envision was especially impressive: young women in chic party dresses up to there, straight guys trying to be all JT in Fedoras. They are hungry for more than one Midwestern city can deliver on its own. Imagine if the fashion world brought us New York quality shows. These good looking, enthusiastic fashion seekers would go wild. Perhaps some might even be inspired to pay full price.