Max Lohrbach, 32
Fashion Designer

Hails from: Mantorville, Minn.

Why he’s a keeper: Max Lohrbach, one of local fashion’s most beloved designers, lives in a decrepit old house in southern Minnesota. He spends his days drawing, sewing, painting and doing crossword puzzles. He doesn’t own a computer or a television set, and pays no attention to fashion magazines. It is precisely this low-tech, unmuddled lifestyle that drives Lohrbach’s unique, detailed and historically inspired fashion.

History has always been important to Lohrbach and it shows in his couture creations, which have graced runways across the Twin Cities. His Spring 2009 finale collection for Voltage: Fashion Amplified (one of Minnesota’s premier fashion events) featured hand-painted patchwork silk gowns with delicate bow cutouts, long gloves and tulle hats perfect for an early 20th-century garden party. Some of the models had torn and frayed Lohrbach original paintings cartoonishly smashed around their torsos as though they’d just gotten in a fight at an art gallery. One model wore a two-piece playsuit with high-waisted bloomers and antique Benjamin-Franklin-style glasses on a chain around her neck.

Trained in millinery, shoemaking and sewing, the 32-year-old fashion history buff has been making clothes for more than ten years. He lives frugally, selling vintage threads on eBay and runway samples at Design Collective, and fulfilling orders for custom designs through word-of-mouth recommendations (no website for this designer). Lohrbach is thinking about putting on a solo runway show this spring and if so, would include a chapbook of illustrations and inspiration drawings. The only thing that could take him away from home, he says, would be a phone call from a major couture house. In the meantime, he’ll be plugging away—unplugged—in his 1890s house in small-town Minnesota, which, for the moment, is right where he belongs.

On quality: “I like when people have really good, well-made stuff. You know, when they’re under-stitching their facings and just getting it right. Good hems. I like good hems.”

On vintage clothes: “Years ago, I went to Via’s Vintage Wear when [the late] Via Vento used to run it and I got a job there. She ran down the basics for me and taught me what makes a good dress or shirt. Business was slow back then so I just got to study every piece of clothing. That didn’t just influence me picking out clothes, but also what I think about design. I still have a number of really killer pieces from her: a 1940s silky, rayon, zebra-print men’s shirt, an antique baseball uniform.”

On living media-free: “It makes me draw a lot. I like to read. The computer thing I miss out on a little bit, but there are only certain things I really do online. I don’t really like movies. I don’t really care about music either. I just care about visual stuff.”—M.O.

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Mo Perry, 28
Actor

Hails from: Eden Prairie

Why she’s a Keeper: Mo herself says it best: “I’m really not afraid to look ugly or weird or strange onstage. I think a lot of woman actors—understandably in this business—are preoccupied with looking good. There are a lot of roles specifically written for women who look good. I’ve always been more interested in being interesting than being pretty. So I’ll make that crazy face in a comedy that’s really ridiculous and unsightly but that makes people laugh. I can find that dark, pathetic, vulnerable, ugly place in the drama that’s not going to be attractive, but that’s real.”

Amen, Mo! You go balls-out weird, wild and ugly for every role, and we love that! Hell, that’s why you keep landing all the good parts and knocking ’em out of the yard. Your Hedda Gabler, in Gremlin Theater’s spring 2009 take on Ibsen’s classic, was remarkably nuanced. You stole the show as the spacey, loveable Georgette in Torch Theatre’s recent staging of episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Forgive us for indulging in a bit of dime-store psychology, but we bet that part of the reason you’re willing to be unattractive onstage is that before becoming a professional actor, you spent a couple years living in the real world where, yes, things can get a little ugly. Your decision to take a break from acting after studying theater at the University of Kansas? Brilliant! That allowed you to join the Peace Corps and travel to Africa, to live in a van in California, and to guide international tourists on camping trips throughout the Southwestern United States.

You told us that you don’t bring a lot of your own “stuff” to your characters, but when you returned to the Twin Cities, and to acting, in 2004, you attacked each role—Carol in Theater Limina’s Oleanna, for example—like someone who’d been doing some serious l-i-v-i-n’. Or maybe we’re totally off base and you’re just one of those young performers with an old soul who can do anything. Either way, your versatility continues to blow our theater-lovin’ minds. What we’re trying to say here is please don’t move to New York or Los Angeles, Mo. Local stages need your crazy, badass chops.

Acting debut: When she was 7, Mo played Young Caddie Woodlawn in her Montessori school’s production of Caddie Woodlawn.

Upcoming roles: Kate in Torch Theater’s Dancing at Lughnasa in January; Darla in Joking Envelope’s Safe as Houses in April (Joking Envelope is Joseph Scrimshaw’s new theater company). —C.C.