Photo courtesy of Boston Fashion Week

Ladies’ night: “The Power of Women: The Future of Boston Fashion” is the theme of this year’s kickoff event and highlights six female fashion designers

The city stands poised on the heels of the 24th annual Boston Fashion Week, as its style savvy begin eagerly flipping through calendars of catwalks and seminars, fund-raisers and book signings.

With events running through Oct. 6, all perfectly winged cat eyes are on the Sept. 30 kickoff at The Exchange at 100 Federal Street. During this much-anticipated evening, six local designers are highlighted to represent Boston’s future of fashion.

Photo courtesy of Boston Fashion Week

Boston Fashion Week founder and executive director, Jay Calderin

And that future is female.

“This year we’ve built a theme around our opening night event. We’re calling it ‘The Power of Women: The Future of Boston Fashion,’” Jay Calderin, founder and executive director of Boston Fashion Week (BFW), tells Exhale.

This public ticketed event is hosted by Platform Downtown, an initiative led by stylist Terri Mahn and the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District.

The evening will explode with editorial imagery and fashion presentations from female powerhouse designers Gina deWolfe of deWolfe Leather Goods, Lalla Bee’s Melina Cortes-Nmili, Tallulah & Poppy’s Meghan Doyle, Joelle Fontaine of I Am Kréyol, Simone Simon Collection’s Cecile Thieulin, and Graciela Rivas Leslin of Graciela Rivas Collection.

These women were living real lives, full of trial and error. They had fun with fashion, but it wasn’t being used to disguise their lives. They inspired me.

Deciding on these trailblazers wasn’t done off the cuff. According to Calderin, it took him a year to decide on the event’s raison d’être: celebrating the inspirational and profound voice of women.

“I observed local fashion professionals through the filters of social media, special events, and business practices. The emphasis for many was on exploration and experimentation,” he explains.

Among the patterns, Calderin discovered an overwhelming human element—an ability to create cultures in which struggles were repurposed as motivation. “These women were living real lives, full of trial and error. They had fun with fashion, but it wasn’t being used to disguise their lives. They inspired me.”

The “Power of Women” event opens the BFW floodgate, similar in scheduling from past years but with a few alterations for 2018.

Photo: Iggy Barskov/courtesy of Boston Fashion Week

Cat(walk) women: Fashion designer Graciela Rivas Leslin (left) with a model at the opening night of Boston Fashion Week 2017

“Nothing is ever the same from year to year,” says Calderin. “Even events that return are reinvented. It’s the nature of the fashion industry to change, celebrating new talent and exploring new formats and venues throughout the city.”

We’ve been working hard to redefine what a week celebrating fashion means in the region. Shows will always be a big part of the mix, but our area has so much more to offer.

A female perspective shines brightly throughout the week, with runway shows from designers such as Danielle Costabile, Luna Joachim of L’Accent Women’s Fashion, and Denise Hajjar. But attendees can expect a lot more than catwalks and poses.

“We’ve been working hard to redefine what a week celebrating fashion means in the region,” Calderin continues. “Shows will always be a big part of the mix, but our area has so much more to offer.” And all of BFW is dedicated to the memory of model Linda Cole Petrosian, a leading lady and local fashion legend who lost a courageous battle against cancer in January.

Among the popular events is GlamSlam, an evening hosted by comedian Bethany Van Delft, during which fashion professionals offer spoken snippets of significant career moments. This year’s storytelling is from the likes of fashion illustrator Holly Nichols, M.Gemi co-founder Maria Gangemi, makeup artist Mariolga Pantazopoulos, and more.

The BFW’s closing event, the MASSFashion Past, Present, and Future Symposium at the Museum of Fine Arts, is yet another glimpse behind the scenes through fashion-related exhibitions from around New England. Several female educators, designers, and museum curators engage audiences with lectures on Oct. 5 and 6.

“It’s very exciting that [Boston Fashion Week] has become a tradition,” admits Calderin. “People expect it to take place and want their place in it. That’s not only the best compliment we could receive for our efforts, but it’s also the best environment to work in.”