Calling all fashion lovers—Baltimore Fashion Week (BFW) is back and (literally) bigger than ever. For the first time since its inception in 2008, BFW will be living up to its name with a full week of events (last year, the “week” only ran for two days).

For Sharan Nixon, former model and founder of BFW, it was about time. “If we’re doing fashion week, we need to do a week—not three, not two—but seven days,” she says.

You can still expect to see up-and-coming designers from as close as Greenmount West to as far away as Nigeria flock to the Columbus Center catwalk, but there’s a whole lot more.

“I wanted to do something different,” Nixon explains. So instead of the traditional seven days of collections, BFW will reserve the runway shows for the final two days, hosting events throughout the week to garner anticipation. Be on the lookout for industry parties and meet-ups—including lunch with ELLE magazine’s fashion and technology editor Jenna Blaha.

As always, Nixon will use her connections in the fashion industry to mentor Baltimore’s designers, even securing spots for standouts to show during New York Fashion Week.

“People are watching what we do here,” Nixon says, “our [Baltimore showcases] are always sold out in New York.” And with alumni success stories such as Greenmount’s own Bishme Cromartie (see his profile in our August issue, on newsstands now), who was introduced on the BFW runway in 2008 and has since become a Project Runway fan favorite, we might start needing two weeks of events.