Fashion Focus Chicago happens next month, but let's face it, New York's fashion week is still the big time. A few local designers are heading east to take part.

Maria Pinto, the city's most famous design talent at the moment, is showing at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, along with some other names and labels you might have heard of, such as Tory Burch and Calvin Klein. Lara Miller is showing her spring '10 collection as part of the GreenShows, a two-day "eco-event" featuring designers who use sustainable materials and processes. Miller is offering a peek at her preparations and the collection on her blog. And former Reader cover story subjects Creatures of the Wind, aka Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters, are showing as well, and have tapped local salon owner and style icon Bathsheba Nemerovski to do their models' hair.