Lauren Conrad hosts fashion show in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, meet MTV.

Lauren Conrad , star of MTV’s reality TV shows The Hills and Laguna Beach, hosted a fashion show Saturday night in downtown Minneapolis.

Ten models, eight of whom are University of Minnesota students, modeled clothes from Conrad’s clothing line at the 414 Soundbar on Third Avenue.

The show is part of the Lauren Conrad Collection College Tour , a four-city tour that started on Oct. 25, in Austin, Texas, and was followed by Atlanta on Nov. 1. The tour will finish in Boston on Nov. 15.

Conrad said the idea to use local college students as the models was suggested by The Quad , a college-student-only website that Conrad is collaborating with to promote her collection.

“It seemed like a really good idea because a lot of colleges don’t get the opportunity to do runway shows,” Conrad said.

Conrad said all of the models looked great wearing her “California brand” collection.

Models were nominated by their peers and Conrad selected the final 10.

She said she wanted a variety of girls with different looks to wear the assortment of clothes in her collection.

The winner of each of the four shows will go to Los Angeles in February for fashion week, where they will hang out with Conrad. People at the show will be able to vote for the winner by texting the name of the model they liked the most. Voting is also being conducted online at The Quad’s website, ending on Monday.

Cassi Smiley , Corissa Funk , Kelsey Thompson , Tina Schneider , Katie Nortman , Kim Perla , Alexis Kotschevar and Kerry Wallace were the eight models from the University.

Funk said her friends convinced her to do the show, though she didn’t think she was model material. She said she has never watched The Hills but would love the chance to go to fashion week.

Schneider is a retail merchandising major and said she was interested in the fashion aspect of the show.

Zach Suchin , co-founder of TheQuad.com, said partnering with Conrad for the tour was a great opportunity.

“Lauren is one of the rare mature brands out there in Hollywood,” Suchin said. “She’s a well-rounded driven, successful young woman.”

Suchin said the website offers valuable services for students, like its greek-life feature that offers event planning and electronic meeting services.

Six of the eight girls from the University are in sororities, and Conrad, a student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California, said she would have probably been in one if she had gone to a traditional school.

Kotschevar, a health and wellness major, said she has some experience modeling in her hometown, Detroit Lakes, Minn.

“If I don’t win that’s no big deal,” Kotschevar said. “It’s already a great thing to be doing but going to L.A. would be pretty sweet.”