StyleWeek turns Biltmore hotel into fashion mecca

Strike a pose: the sixth StyleWeek fashion event in Providence, StyleWeek Northeast, is here.
The biannual show’s name underwent a mini-makeover this season to reinforce its support of the region’s designers, who are not just from Providence.
“It’s not only for the community, but also for the buyers, the press and the industry,” Rosanna Ortiz Sinel, founder and president of StyleWeek Northeast’s parent company, StyleWeek LLC, told Providence Business News last week.
The show was scheduled to begin Aug. 26 with three shows, followed by an after-party at the Providence Biltmore Hotel. It ends Aug. 31, with the final after-party in the Garden Room of the Biltmore, co-hosted by Alex and Ani and Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island. Twenty percent of the $10 cover charge will go towards Home and Hospice Care.
StyleWeek LLC was created in 2009 to “provide emerging designers a platform to showcase their debut collections to the region,” according to the event’s website. To achieve this, StyleWeek organizers bring together interest groups from the local community as well as outside industry specialists, designers, buyers and the press.
For the third time, StyleWeek is opening up admission to the general public (the event was originally invitation only). And, in another change, there are no “style ambassadors” this week.
“Celebrity placements are not a high priority this season,” Sinel said. “This is a trade show. It should be about the designers.”
Though barely a three-year-old company, StyleWeek LLC has grown from a local nonprofit to the parent company of StyleWeek Public Relations and StyleWeek Resort, with its eye on expanding to more cities across the country. StyleWeek Northeast is the only regional event that parallels the industry standard, allowing designers to debut their seasonal collections in June and January, Sinel said. It’s also one of the few regional expositions supported by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. But while designers may have to pay upwards of $10,000 to participate in a fashion show, the entrance fee for headlining day at StyleWeek Northeast (the most expensive day) only costs a designer $1,000.
StyleWeek provides designers with hair stylists, makeup artists and backstage production; not to mention the press coverage. According to Sinel, Nylon Magazine, a major fashion and pop-culture magazine, will be in the audience this year.
Hope MacDonald, one of the two Class of 2012 RISD graduates participating in the show (the other is Zev Shwartz), got a taste of what to expect from the StyleWeek Resort show in Miami in July. She said not many designers her age have access to the resources StyleWeek provides.
“They provide such a professional environment,” MacDonald said. “The photos that come out of the show will be great for my portfolio.”
Preceding StyleWeek events have had parties after every show, which Sinel said she found excessive. So in another change, “We decided on two big events so that people can go out to dinner after the shows, and visit the local businesses nearby,” she added.
Fashion week impacts a variety of other businesses, and organizers hope that as the Providence event grows, the economic benefits to the community will too.
Sinel is working with a team of eight volunteers and 20 interns to put on this season’s show, together with more sponsors than ever before, including Swarovski, Alex and Ani and Vitamin Water. The Biltmore has hosted the event three times, converting the Grand Ballroom into a 52-foot floor runway. Fourteen designers will present their Summer/Spring 2013 lines, including StyleWeek veterans Jessica Abernathy, Maria del Carmen Mercado, Nicole Lebreux and Sarah Prost.
An Accessory Showcase will be open to the public each evening in L’Apogee, on the 17th and 18th floors of the Biltmore, sponsored by Alex and Ani’s Flaunt Boutique.
Fourteen designers will participate in both the runway shows and the Accessory Showcase – compared to 17 clothing designers and 10 accessory designers respectively in the last show, in January.
The Aug. 26 after-party was scheduled to be hosted by Ting Barnard, the designer and founder of the Tong Collection, which made its debut during the very first show. The collection was inspired by its namesake, Bernard’s mother. “There’s more to it than the fabrics and the thread; there are layers to the story,” Bernard said.
The Tong Collection is a collaborative effort between Bernard and former Project Runway star and Creative Director for StyleWeek Jonathan Joseph Peters. Bernard pitched her line to Peters, who then took her to New York to buy fabric and taught her how to sketch.
Peters’ own line is showing last on Aug. 31.
The winner of StyleWeek’s inaugural SEED student-design competition in January, Kwong Hui Yee, will have an installation during cocktail hour in L’Apogee on Aug. 29. This season’s incarnation of StyleWeek will not include a new SEED show, though a request for submissions will resume in January. •

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