Sisterhood Boutique celebrates diversity with a flair at annual fashion show

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Sisterhood Boutique hosted its annual fashion night at Augsburg University Tuesday, celebrating diversity and inclusion with a little flair.

At the Foss Center on the Augsburg University campus, a new sense of style is working the runway.

“It’s a new experience. I see people wearing makeup I've never seen before and they are actually dressing up, so it’s a new experience," said Fardowsa Ali, an intern at Sisterhood Boutique.

The Sisterhood Boutique is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a fashion show. The shop was started to give Somali and east African girls a safe space to learn skills like financial literacy, leadership and sewing by running their own business selling secondhand clothes.

“We do a lot of things and the fashion show is a way to show the community what we've been doing. We've had over 200 people go through the process," said store manager Amal Muse.

The fashion show is part birthday party, part fundraiser and features models of all shapes and sizes wearing looks designed by students from the University of St. Catherine's Advanced Construction Class to reflect the diversity found in the West Bank neighborhood where the boutique is located.

“We have women wearing traditional hijabs and burkas; there's everything. It really runs the gamut of what you would see walking around in a very fashionable Minneapolis," said Julie Graves with Pillsbury United Communities.

For some of the girls involved with store, the show is a chance to strike a pose, while for others, it’s one more example that the Sisterhood Boutique lives up to its name.

“It’s very family-like. You feel like you are part of a sister family. I don't have sisters, so I gained sisters," Ali said.