Jay Calderin Reflects on the Past and Influences the Future

“It's continued to evolve because if it stays the same, it's not fashion,” says Jay Calderin, reflecting on how Boston Fashion Week (BFW) has changed over time. The fashion designer and BFW founder recently hosted the 30th annual fashion week this past October. The event  included classic fashion shows along with book talks, classes, and a collaboration with MIT's Cambridge Science Festival.

“[The science festival] allowed us to really start to dive into science and technology as part of fashion,” Calderin explains. “The new frontier for fashion is science and technology, and we're right here.”

But how did Boston come to be at the forefront of fashion, and how has Calderin played a role?

Calderin first moved from New York to Boston after becoming burnt out in the New York fashion scene, describing this as “a pivoting point” in his career. In Boston, he worked at a home goods shop selling vests he designed. The vests eventually ended up in the September issues of Vogue and Elle, worn by Christian Lacroix, one of his “heroes in fashion at the time.” To Calderin, there “was like this big signal . . . saying you shouldn't leave fashion.” From there, Calderin continued to have a successful career, founding BFW a few years later in 1994.

When BFW started, it drew inspiration from fashion weeks in big cities. Calderin says, “there were very few besides the big names,” so Calderin and the BFW team had to figure out how to create a fashion week the Boston way. He came up with the phrase “Boston fashion is smart” as a tagline for BFW to reflect what makes the Boston fashion scene special. Bostonian fashion is representative of the city’s values including practicality, business, and science.

“We like to have fun with it, right? But we’re not going to sacrifice common sense, you know, for fashion, all the time,” Calderin elaborates.

One aspect of Boston that Calderin wanted to show through BFW was the city’s diversity. They achieved this by exploring a different aspect of fashion each year from streetwear to new model talent so that “everybody felt like they were . . . an important part of the week.”

This aspect of inclusivity was a key tenant of Calderin’s vision for BFW. When asked if he saw himself represented in fashion when he started out, he succinctly responds with “no,” but discusses how fashion has become “organically more diverse” over time. Calderin thinks that designers are no longer pigeon-holed into their identities like they used to be.

“More people are concentrating on the talent versus where that talent comes from,” which Calerin believes allows people to “[tap] into their own heritage and culture.”

In Boston, Calderin and BFW’s contribution to diversifying fashion cannot be understated. This year’s fashion week alone featured an Indian beauty pageant, a fashion show highlighting the disabled community, and many more events that showcased communities that are typically underrepresented in mainstream fashion.

Another aspect that Calderin says makes Boston fashion special is the density of students. Unlike some major fashion cities, Boston has many numerous fashion and design programs, and as a result, much of fashion innovation is student-led.

“Every new generation obviously has their own take on what we call fashion,” making the fashion scene “fluid,” Calderin describes.

As an instructor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, School of Fashion Design, and Museum of Fine Arts, his students always keep him “informed” about current fashion, which influences his own work.

As a professor, one subject Calderin teaches his students at MassArt is fashion history. He is primarily interested in the reasoning behind certain clothing pieces in history. For Calderin, it affects how he considers the choices we make with clothing today. For example, Madeleine Vionnet, who pioneered the use of the bias cut, and Issey Miyake, who reinvented textiles through technology, are some of his heroes because “those are the people who really change how we design and make clothes.” Looking towards the future, people like them will change the state of fashion.

To all the students who will lead this future, Calderin advises having “transferable skills.” Creatives should also learn about the business side of the fashion industry otherwise “you’re at the mercy of business.” He encourages those starting off in the industry to learn to work for others first. Echoing the advice of the fashion icon and editor of Vogue, Anna Wintour, Calderin believes that this provides learning opportunities along with relative financial stability.

“There's absolutely nothing wrong with having your day gig” to support a creative dream.