The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

In dueling cities, different ways of handling fashion

By Anna Rice, News correspondent

During New York Fashion Week, which ended Saturday, designers like Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg and Proenza Schouler showed their fall 2009 lines to buyers, editors and stylists.
Boston Fashion Week, which is scheduled from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 this year, has an entirely different purpose, said Jay Calderin, who began it in 1995.
‘New York Fashion Week is about getting press pictures and buyers. It’s not open to the public. It’s not as accessible,’ Calderin said. ‘Here in Boston, it’s really about connecting with the customers.’
Calderin, who for seven years was a fashion editor and press photographer at the even 7th On Sixth:’ Fashion Shows in Bryant Park, said he started Boston Fashion Week because he saw a lot of untapped talent coming out of schools like the School of Fashion Design and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt).
In 2008, Boston Fashion Week consisted of runway and gallery shows, industry panel discussions, social events and film screenings, Calderin said.
The Boston fashion scene doesn’t try to compete with New York, but focuses instead on fostering new and established local talent, said local designer Daniela Corte, who has participated in Boston Fashion Week.
‘Five or six years ago you had to go to New York to get something edgy or cool,’ said Corte, who participates in Boston Fashion Week. ‘Now Boston has the best of both worlds because it’s small but there’s a lot of new talent developing and trying to make it different.’
Amy Patt, who came to Boston from New York six years ago, is the CEO of Guilded Boston, a space that opened in February on Newbury Street for designers, stylists, make-up artists, photographers and other fashion industry professionals to conduct business and host events, she said.
‘I saw a need for a way to really organize fashion in Boston,’ Patt said. ‘People are still doing a lot of fashion from their kitchen tables at home.’
Guilded’s client list includes new designers in the area like Lily and Migs, a women’s clothing brand, and 9Tailors, an online Boston-based company that manufactures affordable and customized dress shirts, Patt said.
‘I’m trying to create Boston as a place for emerging fashion designers to come,’ Patt said.
While there is a lot of new talent present in Boston, there are also several veterans in the industry, including Nirva Derbekyan, who graduated from MassArt in 1998 and owns Lexington-based clothing company Nirva.
‘Back then (in 1998) there was hardly anything, and now everyone seems to be really into fashion,’ Derbekyan said. ‘There are [fashion] publications now, like Fashion Boston, and just walking down the street you can see a lot more people that are fashionable.’
Derbekyan participated in Boston Fashion Week in 2008 by collaborating with several other designers to host a gallery showing of her line at a Newbury Street salon.
This type of collaboration is common in the Boston fashion industry, said Sam Mendoza, another designer who graduated from Boston University in May 2008.
‘There’s a lot less competition [than in New York],’ Mendoza said. ‘It’s almost like a big family. There’s a lot of collaboration going on, which I think is positive.’
The Boston fashion industry is continuing to grow and come into its own, said Calderin, who will be working to promote the student fashion shows at local colleges in April and May, he said.
Guilded Boston will also be hosting an event to introduce new fashion designers and brands to some local college students in April, Patt said.
At Northeastern, there is a social networking group for students interested in fashion, called Fashion is HAUTE. Meetings are usually held on Tuesday nights in Ryder Hall and are open to anyone who is interested, said Jaclyn Iavarone, a middler art major who is one of the group’s founders.
‘Overall I think that Boston’s a city where there is so much room to grow,’ Iavarone said. ‘And I think that’ s good for a lot of up-and-coming designers.’
Northeastern students can also attend a free screening with their Northeastern ID of the Fashion Group International’s Ready-to-Wear Spring/Summer 2009 Screening, a comprehensive overview of runway trends from New York, London, Milan and Paris, on Wednesday Feb. 25 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at MassArt’s Tower Auditorium.

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