Slowdown with Style

Per her usual, Anna Lee appears poised and admirably calm when we drop by her south Minneapolis home early in the morning. Her porcelain face bears only a hint of cosmetics. Her luminous red hair is left unstyled, with a few nonconformist wisps. Lee kindly leads her guest to a comfy upholstered chair in her upstairs workspace, a tidy sun-filled chamber well appointed with sewing machines, fabric scraps, and vintage office furniture.

Photo by Stephanie Colgan

Although she is best known as the founder and producer of this month’s earsplitting Voltage: Fashion Amplified runway show (First Avenue, April 24), Lee is eager to discuss her quieter, year-round endeavors. The conversation kicks off when the designer, entrepreneur, and community organizer starts musing on the rotten economy.

Sure, she admits, fashion designers are taking a hit. Shoppers are in the mood for bargains, Lee reckons, whereas individual clothes-makers are not positioned to deliver deep discounts. But Lee quickly dispenses with the gloom and goes for a more hopeful tone: “What I think is exciting is that people are looking for solutions,” she says. So far, Lee’s most ambitious offering is MNfashion, the unusual nonprofit she founded in 2006. The organization already directs local fashion designers to business workshops and promotional resources. It’s also responsible for MNfashion Week (April 20–26), a series of runway events and trunk shows surrounding Voltage. In the future, Lee wants to add an affiliated sewing co-op to help local designers cut costs and improve price points.

But Lee is no white-knuckled industrialist. Rather, she favors a mindful, strategic approach. She’s taking her sweet time writing the co-op’s strategic plan, for example. She also wants time to ruminate on the locavore trend—does the demand for locally sourced food have a parallel in fashion?

Photo by Stephanie Colgan

In the case of Ruby3, a signature line of cocktail hats and cold-weather accessories, Lee has a success on her hands. Shoppers devoured her 2008 collection of winter hats, scarves, and mittens. “My goal was to sell them all and I did,” she says gleefully. Like any good businessperson, she wanted to reward the success, so she gave herself a long, luxurious vacation—the bulk of February was spent in Argentina.

Of course, the leisurely trip also had professional worth. Lee suspects her 2009 collection will be heavily influenced by the journey, or—to echo a recurring theme—“having time to slow down.”