Boston Fashion Week 2009

Boston is not, and will never be, New York. Nor is it Paris, Milan or Berlin, Miami or Hong Kong. Boston is Boston and that is nowhere more obvious than in the realm of style. While snobs and critics may complain - an excess of corduroy here, a collar buttoned too high there - Jay Calderin applauds. Jay, the founder of what those same quibblers might call a contradiction in terms, Boston Fashion Week, sees the wisdom of women's ways here and has brought the city together for a whole week to celebrate it. Boston Fashion Week launches tonight, September 10 and goes through September 17. A full listing of events are on bostonfashionweek.com. Jay Calderin moved to Boston in 1989. Through his business he got to know the players in the fashion industry in Massachusetts and realized there was a lack of community and cohesion. In 1995 he launched Boston Fashion Week as a way to bring the industry and its customers together, but more than that he launched it to showcase what makes Boston style special and so different than any other city. According to Calderin the label conservative is not applied well to Boston women. 'Boston style is more practical, more a matter of interpretation.' He says one of the things he's always admired about Boston women is their ability to filter out what works for their lives and bring it to a level where it's 'more real'. It's easy, he says, to wear one label piled over another or take an outfit directly out of a magazine. What's more challenging and more exciting is when women (and men too!) create a personal style with what's out there that perfectly fits his or her life. 'I don't call that conservative, I call that smart.' Jay makes it clear that he is in no way trying to emulate the Fashion Weeks of other cities. 'When people criticize what we've done saying it's nothing like New York, I think wow, thank you! I never dreamed the comparison would even be made.' Just the fact that people would think of them in the same category is a shot in the arm for him. 'There are always going to be naysayers,' he says. 'People who want New York will go to New York. But by all means compare!'
http://www.misstropolis.com/index.php/culture/article/boston-fashion-week/