Last year, FACE of Nu'uanu quickly gained a reputation as Honolulu's "Project Runway." The outdoor fashion show in the heart of Chinatown surprised everyone by attracting 10,000 people to a plein-air red carpet down Nu'uanu Avenue. More than 40 new and emerging designers paraded their talents on the runway. The crowds were astounded with the level of talent; it turned out creative people had been hiding throughout Honolulu, just waiting for a venue at which to showcase their design acumen.

This year the single-day fashion show has evolved into an entire week of fashion-related events in Chinatown. FACE — Fashion Art Culture and Entertainment — is a celebration of the arts embodied in Chinatown, the city's epicenter of cool.

The brains behind FACE are Takeo, fashion designer and guru to beauty pageant queens, and Sandi Pohl, owner of the Louis Pohl Gallery.

Takeo's partner in 2Couture, Eric Eugene Kamakahia'ai Chandler, has also become involved with the organization. He sees FACE as a way to attract new blood into Hawai'i's fashion industry. "We're ready to pass the torch. The reason we're doing this is to have a bridge for the future and to open doors for people to enter the fashion industry here," Chandler explained.

This year, New York fashion designer Michael Kaye will up the style quotient at FACE of Nu'uanu. As a guest designer, Kaye, who formed Michael Kaye Couture in 2001 with the idea of bringing the couture philosophy into the 21st century, will show his work — made with materials ranging from lace and ruffles to tartans and double-faced crepes.

Kaye has a storied fashion past. The Fashion Institute of Technology graduate honed his skills at big-in-the-'80s companies Adele Simpson, Scaasi Dress, Albert Nipon, Jones New York and Steven Stolman. His line, Michael Kaye NYC, was a bridge dress line carried at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Jacobson's and Holt Renfrew.

A Canadian, Kaye has a love affair with Scottish tartans. He has shown tartan evening gowns in Sir Sean Connery's annual star-studded "Dressed to Kilt" fashion show fundraiser in New York for several years.

Perhaps Kaye's biggest coup came when Harold Koda, the former Honolulan who is curator of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, acquired one of his tartan evening gowns for the institute's permanent collection.

Reach Paula Rath at paularath@aol.com.