BOSTON’S NEW HOUSE FASHION WEEK OFFERS AN INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO THE PUBLIC
By: Hillary LeBlanc
Trizzy Tran may have never considered marketing for House Fashion Week in Boston had she not immigrated from Vietnam at age 11. Tran moved to the U.S. with her family and after getting two bachelor’s degrees in Marketing and in Art she started to “dabble in the industry through modelling and photography”. While navigating these avenues within the fashion industry she discovered House Fashion Week and says it is where she found her voice, “This production is where my heart belongs.”
House Fashion Week is produced by David Jean who moved from Haiti to Brooklyn at the age of four. A lover of the fashion and entertainment industries, he then moved to Miami at 19 pursuing a modelling career. This path led him to New York seven years later where he expanded his career in fashion production and modelling.
Tran and Jean met at a styling event in May of 2020 after knowing of each other through the Boston community and connecting over Instagram.
House Fashion Week was conceptualized in 2020, “with the sole purpose of providing a platform that caters to all demographics, creating an inclusive production for the community that will support these amazing designers”. In addition to the fashion shows, House Fashion Week has created many different activities for the public to participate in such as discussions, art fashion installation, educational and model workshops. All designers featured are notably using sustainable elements such as scrap materials and upcycled clothing, an opportunity for House Fashion Week to be an industry voice citing the importance of eco-fashion.
As a Marketing Director, Tran is in charge of managing all aspects relating to the production and implementation of any given campaign, '“as this was House Fashion Week's first year, we must spread our mission”. House Fashion Week was created to introduce a new perspective of fashion production to Boston and beyond. The goal is to make fashion inclusive by making fashion accessible to everyone. That’s why the events are open to the public and not invite-only trying to persuade fashion industry elites to attend.
In order to participate, designers must have a cohesive collection of ten looks minimum.
Jean feels that Boston needed a fresh new innovative voice for the creative and arts community. Tran adds that, “Boston is known for a lot of things except fashion. We want to introduce fashion to the community to bring people of interest together. A place we creatives can network and anyone who is interested in fashion can expand their fascination”.
Of the experience, Tran shares that it was more difficult than they thought to bring a different scene and make fashion for all. “We did not have an idea how many would show up as the event was opened to the public. We had a bigger turnout than we anticipated. The venue was reaching over capacity and we had to turn some people away at the door.”
Jean adds, “There's always challenges and hurdles with everything you do in life, especially entrepreneurship. How you organize and structure your events will give you an indication how the final result will turn out.”
To anyone wishing to do something similar, Tran and Jean say that while their production could never be imitated or duplicated, no one truly knows what they are capable of unless they try.
Tran adds “We will eventually expand the schedule but as of right now, we are taking things one day at a time. Models can email us castings@housefashionweek.com and designers can inquire about showcasing by contacting info@housefashionweek.com.