It’s time for the latest installment of Saint Louis Fashion Week, which has emerged as the little engine that could.

There are fledgling, flailing and failing fashion week ventures in prominent cities around the country. Most notably Los Angeles and Dallas,  but the drive to produce viable outlets to promote regional fashion institutions continues.

And who’d of guessed it, but St. Louis is emerging as the Cinderella of the ball.  At left Mayor Francis Slay listens as fashion week founder Attilio D’Agostino announces the line-up of designers for March during a press conference at City Hall today.

Fashion weeks are an opportunity to whet appetites about fashions to come and to celebrate clothing and style. But really, it’s an unabashedly elaborate advertising tool. Designers invest in elaborate shows in hopes of luring press agencies, retail buyers and avid shoppers to look at their lines. If enough people look, stories will be written, buyers will invest and the fashionistas will start buying.

It’s a simple formula that is terribly hard to mastermind. The Saint Louis venture has succeeded because we are big enough to have notable designers hiding within our midst — Lori Coulter’s swimwear line and the newly founded contemporary menswear label TRIM.

But the city is small enough to have an us-against-the-world community of fashionistas who are tired of people saying that St. Louis fashion as the punchline to jokes. Those agencies large Budweister Select, Bakers Shoes and Lumiere Place Casino & Hotel and small West Model & Talent Management and Lucky You Productions are teaming up and essentially chanting I-think-we-can-I-think-we-can.

And it appears to be working.

This season’s fashion week scheduled can be viewed at www.saintlouisfashionweek.com.

The events will take place March 25 through March 29 and will include iconic contemporary brands like Diesel and a surprising appearance by the British label Bolongaro Trevor.

Designers debuting their Fall 2009 collections will be sexy sophisticated celebrity fave Black Halo (a collection we “heart” here at Style File) and the hip, cult menswear label Wrath Arcane.

Just in case you’re wondering, it is customary that fall collections debuts in the spring and spring collections debut in the fall so that it allows time for orders to be filled before they hit the stores.

All the fun kicks off with the Bakers Project: Design! hosted by Project Runway designer Jerell Scott, you might remember him as the lanky, shoulder shrugging, big-ups, avante garde designer who made it to the final four on the last season after winning a number of challenges. This design challenge carries a $30,000 marketing package for the winner.

Sponsored by Budweiser Select the Midwest fashion event continues to attract a growing number of regional and national designers.