Remember last week when I posted this teaser bit about a new-fangled trunk show at Mario’s? Today’s the day to get there.

The line is Hester, and she is the NYC-based body-con love child of two former Men’s Vogue staffers who fell into great luck when they launched their premiere collection just as the stock market fell flat on its butt and their mag folded. Great luck because it allowed (forced?) the designers to do this; this is reinventing the trunk show—and maybe even the whole retail model—with a direct-marketing road tour, and a corresponding roadtrip blog.

‘We heard, no so many times that we decided to rephrase the question,’ Tasha Green told me yesterday. ‘We’ is the Seattle-born Green and her partner Mauricio Quezada; the question used to be ‘Would you like to carry our collection of future-fantastic details lined up on 40s silhouettes?’ – and the new question is ‘How about if we just show up with our suitcases full of the stuff and let your chicest clients try it all on?’

(See, typically, a store wouldn’t host a trunk sale unless the line was already represented on their floor. Those were the old days, these are the new ones.)

Although the illustrious Satine in LA and Louis Boston scooped up Hester, most stores are as reluctant to splurge as you are … except, well, you aren’t all that reluctant, are you? Mario’s may not have committed to two of each of Hester’s sexy little frocks, but their clients (that’s you) have all day today to try them on, talk with the designers, and decide which sculpted-yet-soft-edged skirt should go home with which re-imagined trench.

Tasha and Mauricio aren’t the first designers to spin the whole traveling salesmen thing in the face of a bummer economy, and no one thinks they’ll be the last. Trend alert, friends. Trend alert. Why, Style.com is even making room for a Hester blog on which Tasha will assume the voice of Hester herself (the line is named for the duo’s imaginary friend … it’s not creepy, it’s cute) and chronicle this whole shopping experiment. The blog and the tour kick off here in Seattle, and continue with stops in Portland, L.A., Charleston, and more; I’ll be back to provide a link once ‘Hester’ gets her post on.

Speaking of Seattle, I was charmed when Tasha acknowledged that her hometown is part and parcel of Hester. While Mauricio’s aesthetic is pure future fantasy (‘If left on his own, he would make things that you really couldn’t hail a cab in.’), hers is all backwards-glancing estate-sale fashion as filtered through Belltown in the ’90s. ‘I couldn’t escape the grunge era if I wanted to. Vintage is what I love,’ she told me.

I don’t know about you but there are few quicker ways to my heart.

To try on the historical mash-ups, and to take part in the new retail model, stop by Mario’s today between 10am and 5pm.

(Image above from a Vogue magazine feature on Hester)