Marsha Goes to Hollywood: Beauty and the Beast

As the winter rapidly de-thaws, so are

America

’s fashion faithfuls peeling off the layers and quickly adapting to something considerably more seasonal.

A late-bloomer when it comes to embracing the spring season, after a long winter, cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philly and even NYC make it known that when residents do bust out of their shells it comes full force.

With that said, AKIRA is preparing for an explosive next couple of weeks of exciting spring events to get our customers hyped for the season. And yet again I am the girl that has been put in charge of making that happen.

First and foremost, AKIRA's Spring 2009 Fashion Show, an exceptionally large event and our most influential of the season. With all of the scene-makers in place for an unforgettable fashion tribute to Casablanca, the classic cinema tribute will be the largest runway show of the season in the Midwest. For those who don't attend Fashion Week in Milan and don't feel like schlepping through showroom after showroom this is the way to see ready-to-wear clothing styled to the max with an editorial edge… a little “out side of the proverbial Midwest Box” if you will.

This week will be full of all of the fine details, it's like planning a wedding, except there's no honeymoon sex, just a bottle of white wine waiting for you at the finish line. Hosted in a raw warehouse space in the West Loop of the Chicago,we are going high fashion all the way with this one, for more details check out shop.akirachicago.com.

Media invites have already been sent out, a plethora of phone calls are to be made. Sample requests, final modelselections, final creative decisions and last but not least an actual video that we will be making for the opening scene of the runway show (think Freedom with a Bogart edge that is created solely for the store).

Who has time to cut this, size up models,hassle New York and LA reps? Me.

Beauty and the Beast called, they want the Beast back. There are going to be about 12 empty cartons of Chinese food sitting in our office rotting until someone unglues themselves from their seats to take the trash out. Into the wild. Literally.

"Here's looking at you kid", just remember to engrave that on my tombstone. R.I.P. April 26th will be fabulous, I will resurrect Ingrid Bergman if it is the death of me. Godspeed!