Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Devil Wears Provda

Providence may never be confused with Milan, Paris, Manhattan or London. But at least the city is trying to dress the part.

The first-ever fashion week in Rhode Island’s capital city will take place June 6-12 with two invitation-only runway shows per day scheduled for the Marriott Providence, the Renaissance Providence Hotel and the Hotel Providence. A series of free receptions following the shows will allow members of the public to meet the designers and see creations up-close. In all, the work of 16 designers from New York, New England and "Elsewhere" will be featured (what Anonymous is to Biography, Elsewhere is to Geography) – including Woonsocket native and “Project Runway” contestant Jonathan Joseph Peters and at least one Rhode Island School of Design graduate.

The event is called StyleWeek Providence. Explaining the reason for bringing haute couture to DownCity, StyleWeek founder Rosanna Ortiz Sineal, a senior vice president at the Providence public relations firm Miamore Communications, was quoted in the ProJo as saying:

I just noticed that fashion events in New England are not taken seriously. I wanted to use Providence as a canvas to focus on the business of fashion.
Not to rain on the fashion parade, but methinks there is a reason why "fashion events in New England" are not taken seriously. Because nobody around here really cares whether their lime green purse was so last season or whether ruffled shirts accessorized by live parrots and eye patches are back in style. This tends to be a place that prefers things that last to things that are trendy. We've got Colonial houses still standing from the 1700s and Pilgrim hats good for any occasion that look as if they've never been out of the box.

So go enjoy yourself looking at the "glammuh" next week, but just remember that in these parts a faded Red Sox cap and a pair of Keens can get you through a whole summer.

The question is: How would you describe Rhode Island style?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barrington must have changed a great deaal - I seem to remember there being a dress code for entering some streets and some beaches all determined by an indescribable sense of Yuppie. Never thought the Lacoste went well with Pilgrim hats.

Doug Norris said...

Never being an Izod wearer myself, I tend to black out the Preppie/Yuppie years of pink alligator shirts and boat shoes. Truth is, Rhody style depends...Barrington is still much as it was. Federal Hill in Providence is a mix of old-world Italians and New York wannabes. The South County beaches are California surf East (although Scarborough once had a rep for attracting the gold chains-and-silver crosses crowd from Cranston). South County Swampers still wear flannel in the summer. Waders and clam rakes are part of the wardrobe. The college kids that dominate Providence at night wear a lot of black and T-shirts with bands, logos or hip witticisms on them.