Record Store Day! Runway shows! There was a lot happening this weekend… likely in anticipation of Voltage! Or probably because it was the first weekend of warm. We even paid a visit to hipsterzone Spyhouse.

Saturday was Record Store Day! Hennepin Avenue was abuzz outside Fifth Element where people spilled onto the sidewalk, confusing the many suburbanites driving through. What? Culture?! People?! Over at 26th and Lyndale, Treehouse Records had an impromptu outdoor show. I would’ve classified the music as indie-record-store-sidewalk-impromptu genre. Owner Mark Trehus was quoted in an MPR article saying:

“We don’t carry the CDs of mainstream artists,” he proudly proclaimed. “If you wanna buy CDs, I think you have to go to the same place that sells washing machines and refrigerators and what not and those places, I really don’t like em,’ ” he said.

Kudos to music scenester Chris Roberts for Whittier publicity.

Sorry to other stores we didn’t visit such as the legendary Electric Fetus or the punk band-lovin’ neighbor-blasting Eclipse Records in STP.

On Saturday night was the Rumours & Innuendo Fashion Show. R&I is a gay bar in the former French Press Jazz Club/Fusion Cafe space in Saint Paul’s Lowertown. I’ll defer to L’etoile magazine‘s description of the event:

This isn’t going to take much convincing on our part, so we’ll throw out the vital information: 80’s styles, lingerie and couture, designs by Oskar Ly, Coco & Breezy (yes, THAT Coco & Breezy — they are designing now!), Mitsou Ly and Brittany Hughes. Hosted by drag queen superstar Camille Collins at St. Paul’s newest gay bar. Don’t be shy about your own style either — glitter and heels are encouraged!

Camille Collins was drag diva and apparently had a crush on a gentleman named “Erik” sitting in the middle of the crowd (with his mom). Google returns a mixed bag for Coco & Breezy, so I’ll assume they are models turned designers. Coco and Breezy are models and now as the show went, designers. Overall the clothing designs focused on cocktail and evening wear. We hearted makeup artist Oskar Ly (modelmayhem / myspace) who perfected a clean and polished look for each model.

Btw, btw, btw our newest blog find in local fashion is U of M Threads (“panache” is its name but we like UMT better). It’s run by journalist Sohail Justin Akhavein who writes for City Pages, Lavender, and Vita.mn to name a few.