It's Lexus Charleston Fashion Week (#LexusCFW), which means that all of the top designers, models, makeup artists, bloggers, and fashionistas are visiting our Southern neighbor to experience the best of the fashion world. Asheville's own Allyson Ansusinha was selected this year as an Emerging Designer Semifinalist for the competition, and on Tuesday she was chosen by a panel of judges as the Top Emerging Designer of the evening. Ansusinha will show her full collection this Saturday night during the event finale, and Asheville Grit will be streaming the event right from our homepage.  16 designers from across the country were selected by Fashion Week judges to compete in this year's event, which started on March 14 in Charleston. The winner of the Grand Prize, chosen on the final night, receives a $10,000 cash prize, lunch with Fern Mallis (creator of New York Fashion Week) in New York City, an opportunity to intern with a designer during New York Fashion Week, and a Featured Designer runway show on opening night of Charleston Fashion Week 2018.  Ansusinhna is thrilled at her success so far. "I'm super excited and humbled to have been chosen amongst such talented and hard working designers," she said Friday. "CFW is an amazing platform for me to debut my designs, which incorporate vertically integrated manufacturing and closed loop sourcing with the support of Echoview Fiber Mill in Weaverville." Ansusinhna received her Associates of the Arts degree in Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her commitment to sustainability and beauty in design is clear: She has worked with sustainable apparel and textile companies in the United States and Thailand, and her travels have inspired her designs. The collection she's presenting this week is a line of knitwear that uses alpaca, wool, organic cotton, and tencel. 

The silhouettes are cozy, have beautiful drape, and wrap around the body. I emphasize texture, pattern and color on versatile pieces that are designed with the hopes that they will last through multiple stages of a woman's life. I drew my initial inspiration from traditional Thai and Japanese garments that pay respect to the textile.

Check out the gorgeous designs and fabrics for yourself in this Fashion Week gallery of Ansusinha's Tuesday show. Charleston Fashion Week takes place on Marion Square in downtown Charleston. Saturday's finale will feature four or five designers, after which the Top Designer Award will be presented. Watch it live on Asheville Grit or at the Charleston Fashion Week website.