With celebrity clients like Michelle Obama, Diane Sawyer and Jennifer Garner, Rachel Roy has established herself as the thinking woman’s clothing designer. Her collections are savvy, smart, wearable and touch on sexy rather than scream it. Perhaps best known for her apparel, Roy also does shoes. She’ll be at the Downtown Nordstrom store on Thursday, September 20 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to promote her Fall 2012 collections.

In case you haven’t been before, personal appearances at Nordstrom are fun and swanky affairs. Waiters politely circulate with yummy appetizers or stand patiently with trays of refreshing cocktails. Models are strategically placed, dressed head-to-toe in the designer du jour, while the designer herself chats with customers, smiles for photographs and signs autographs. Well worth a visit if you’re a fan.

Shoppers who make a Rachel Roy purchase of $250 or more that evening will receive a limited edition t-shirt; and Roy is donating 10 percent of those sales to the Pacific Northwest Ballet Backstage Pass program.