Boston Fashion Week Struts New Styles At This Year's Event 2017

New York will always rival Boston when it comes to fashion (but we have to gloat a little, for all you Yankees fans, now that the Red Sox have officially clinched the American League East title), but that doesn’t mean we can’t have our own stylish event each year to show The Big Apple what we’ve got. This weekend kicked off Boston Fashion Week, one of the most anticipated celebrations of our city’s smart style.

Photo Credit: Tracy Aiguier

Jay Calderin started Boston’s week long event of haute fashions in 1995. “I had just moved here from New York and thought we could do something like that here in Boston,” he said. “The audience was different so we decided to structure Boston’s Fashion Week so it would be accessible to the public with the high ticket events benefiting different charities. We put out calls announcing the event and our biggest challenge was trying to break the myth that Fashion Week is only fashion shows and parties, which are very expensive to do correctly.”

What can a first timer expect to find at this year’s lineup? “We are always featuring new talent,” Calderin added. “The opening event (last night) featured 17+ new faces for 2017. We actually have 18 that’s why we are calling it 17+. The youngest designer this year is 15 years old and one is retiring so there is a big range of incredible talent this year.”

How does Calderin describe Boston style? “As a college town, we are a global city that has lots of young people here and there is always a new influx every semester,” he said. “We couldn’t be more fertile experimenting with new ideas. ‘Boston fashion is smart’ is our tagline and it comes out of that technology. That’s our niche and Boston Fashion Week has become a platform for people to express themselves.”

Designers this year include Nasrin Bigonahy, Melina Cortes-Nmili, Rufus Dixon, Meghan Doyle, Danyela Galeano, Anthony Gregorio, Afshan Iragorri, Margaret Jacobs, Luna Joachim, Ruby McAloon, Charles Neumann, Hely Nguyen, Anna Nieman, Jenna Piantedosi, Graciela Rivas Leslin, Sydney Siagel, Cecile Thieulin and Danya Xie.

This week’s lineup includes Soigné‘s release of their newest line of couture hats designed for extraordinary women who set out to make the ultimate statement through fashion. Designer Ashley Clark was inspired by the likes of ‘50 Shades of Grey’ and the British elite for the creation of this line and will host a show on Friday at Yvonne’s.

Some of this year’s featured speakers include Emanuelle Acaad, public relations for Neiman Marcus; Maxine Buretta, costume designer; Chris Donovan, footwear designer and Liz Hostetter, founder & CEO of Ellie Kai. This week, famed fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi will be at the Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday to discuss the necessity of finding a niche, trusting your instincts, and doing only what you love.