The Runway Meets Back Bay

Think Boston Red Sox shirts and cargo shorts are the extent of Bostonians’ fashion sense? Has seeing the same American Apparel dress on every Harvard girl got you jaded? Wondering where the beautiful people in Boston have gone (or, better yet, if they even exist)? Well, believe it or not, Boston has actually spent the last two weeks celebrating its very own, albeit less glamorous, version of Fashion Week.

Though we aren’t exactly on the heels of New York, Paris, or Milan (they are five-inch stilettos after all), fashion experts around Boston contend that this is not the goal of fashion week. "I think the future of Boston Fashion Week is to be Boston Fashion Week," says Jay Calderin, who founded the event in 1995.

Surveying the scene at the Daniela Corte fashion show Friday night, it becomes readily apparent that we’re not in New York any more. The "list" is a collection of Daniela’s ardent supporters rather than a weapon of mass humiliation; the models look like your really stunning next door neighbor rather than a really stunning display of bones; and the fashion crowd even includes a group of pre-teens pouting for their mom’s camera.

The best thing about these local pros, besides the fact that they can rock a Red Sox hat by day and designer dresses by night, is that they recognize our large contribution to Boston’s fashion street cred. Meghan A. Mills, co-owner of Serenella, a Newbury boutique, loves watching college kids come into her store. "They’re trendy—less hipster than New York. They step it up…I’m sort of jealous," laments the Bryant University graduate who remembers Doc Martens being all the rage around the time of her graduation.

Still, most agree that we should leave the designing to the designers. "That’s kind of hysterical," Abba M. Binns, one of the models who dominated the Boston runways, says of Harvard’s attempt to create its own fashion line.

So, with Boston putting its stamp on all sorts of genres—drinks, fashion, sports—show your Beantown pride and change out of that Harvard sweatshirt you’ve been wearing the past four days in a row. The tourists and the Coop may be disappointed, but Boston’s fashion crowd will surely thank you for it.