CITY’S 2019 FASHION RECAP

Pittsburgh’s fashion scene made several strides in 2019. These days, fewer people are asking. “Is there even fashion in Pittsburgh?” and more are wondering, “how can we make the style scene stronger?”

Here’s a look back at five moments that did help to elevate the city’s burgeoning fashion industry this year and ways they can continue to do so in 2020.

Downtown retail scene gets a boost

People have been pondering for years ways to bring more stores to Downtown Pittsburgh. While that remains a work in progress, a handful of boutiques opened in the Golden Triangle. In Market Square, women’s clothing and accessories shop Fresh Nostalgia moved in this fall. A few minutes away, 306 Forbes splits its space near PNC Tower between selling women’s apparel, jewelry and candles and providing microblading services at its brow bar. This also marked the first full year we got to shop Peter Lawrence’s finely curated collection of designer womenswear on Wood Street. Fifth Avenue Place welcomed this holiday season the Magnolia on Main x Vintage Valet pop-up shop, which brought life into a space that hasn’t been occupied in about a decade.

For 2020: It’s not easy to open a boutique, especially in the heart of a city where rents can be high and parking limited. Pittsburgh’s powers-that-be need to keep coming up with ways to make doing business more accessible. But renting or owning a permanent storefront isn’t the only way to bring shopping into the city. Kudos to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and Downtown Community Development Corp. for outdoor pop-up market initiatives in public spaces such as Market Square and Mellon Square. What are some other inventive ways to grow the local economy and opportunities for small businesses and rising designers?

Pittsburgh Fashion Week sashays in the right direction

This year’s Pittsburgh Fashion Week marked its fourth time under the direction of the Downtown Community Development Corp. The designer fashion show in October — arguably the highlight of the week — was strong again, with another sold-out crowd. The DCDC and its team of fashion week ambassadors have found their footing. For 2020: The DCDC

announced during Pittsburgh Fashion Week that it will hold in February the first Pittsburgh Fashion Summit in partnership with Mayor Bill Peduto’s office. It will be interesting to see how this event — slated to include workshops, networking opportunities, a panel discussion and a keynote speaker — will complement what Pittsburgh Fashion Week and other fashion-related events and groups are doing.

Pittsburgh’s first fashion film festival

Leave it to Style 412 to come up with another creative way to deepen Pittsburghers’ connection with fashion. That’s been its mission since it stepped onto the scene in 2016. This year, it premiered at Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville the Fashion Film Festival. For a week in late September, moviegoers were treated to fashion-focused flicks, including “Clueless,” “Zoolander” and a documentary about British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Plus, there was a panel discussion on ways to shop sustainably.

For 2020: Let’s make this film festival a tradition, and continue thinking up ways beyond runway shows to strengthen the fashion industry in Pittsburgh.

Style Week Pittsburgh returns

Following a hiatus in 2018, Style Week Pittsburgh returned with what its founder Wadria Taylor called a “less-is-more” approach — and it worked. For its sixth outing, Style Week stuck with just three days of programming, instead of aiming for a week’s worth of festivities. The result was events that were pretty polished and appeared to run smoothly.

For 2020: It’s time for Style Week Pittsburgh to start building out its infrastructure (personnel, funding options, etc.) so it can work toward becoming a year-round operation capable of dreaming up and executing bigger, better and more events. From its inception, Ms. Taylor’s mission has been to bring people together. Even without a bunch of money or a large staff, it can work on being a unifying force for fashion professionals and enthusiasts by inviting people from all walks of life to be part of Style Week’s events and overall growth.

Building community through boutique crawls

Tasking shoppers with visiting a list of stores in a day or two so they can earn a prize or a discount isn’t new. What was refreshing in 2019 was the number of boutiques across the region that turned to collaborative events to not only encourage people to shop locally but also to foster a spirit of camaraderie among fellow small businesses. For instance, several Downtown stores organized a boutique crawl to kick off the holiday shopping season. Another group — including shops in Dormont, North Side and Brookline — held one in October with the theme #CommunityOverCompetition.

For 2020: When local shops make it a priority to support each other, everybody wins.

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Ray Darten design by Yetunde Olukoya at the designer runway show, the main event of Pittsburgh Fashion Week, at Wintergarden at PPG Place, Downtown, on Oct. 3. This year's designer runway show was strong and attracted a sold-out crowd.

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Fit and Fine Today design by Teresa Reynolds at the designer runway show, the main event of Pittsburgh Fashion Week. This year marked the fourth time the event was under the direction of the Downtown Community Development Corp.

Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette Models walk the runway during designer Jensine Noir's show in the Style Week Pittsburgh runway show, Aug. 17, at Union Project in Highland Park. This year, founder Wadria Taylor took what she called a "less-is-more" approach.

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Mossy Lane design by Elaine Tierney at the designer runway show during Pittsburgh Fashion Week.

Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette Specators at the designer runway show, the main event of Pittsburgh Fashion Week, at Wintergarden at PPG Place, Downtown, on Oct. 3.

Christian Snyder/Post-Gazette 306 Forbes boutique, which sells women's clothing, accessories and microblading brow services, was one of a handful of shops that opened this year in Downtown Pittsburgh.