Local fashion week breaks style norms, embraces individuality

In a city dominated by Patagonia vests and Arc’teryx beanies, the second annual Bozeman Fashion Week is deviating from local style norms by bringing alternative, indie and handmade wearable art to the city scene.

The fashion week’s events started on Monday and will continue until Saturday. The week included a series of events hosted by local businesses. On Saturday, artists will show off their wearable art at the runway Gala.

Organizers Josie Parry and Brinley Nielson are both MSU alumni and small business owners in Bozeman. After visiting Missoula’s fashion week in 2025, they said they were inspired to bring its creativity to Bozeman.

“I just feel like there's a really strong entrepreneurial spirit in Bozeman. Everyone's very open and friendly, and everyone is down to make connections,” Parry said.

Nielson said Bozemanites have a cohesive sense of style, and anyone who deviates might feel alienated.

“If you don't know other people with similar styles, it's easy to feel out of place in Bozeman, where everyone's wearing their Chacos and Patagonia,” Nielsen said.

Olivia Langen, who co-owns Rarebird Vintage with her mom, said they are excited to be involved in this year’s event series.

“I think it's cool to include people in a conversation that they didn't think they were welcome to because they're not New Yorkers or they're not wealthy or they're not part of what you think of as capital ‘F’ fashion,” Langen said. “The concept of fashion is treated as a little untouchable [in Bozeman], and there’s this barrier of entry to fashion.”

On Thursday, Rarebird Vintage will host a textile mending workshop open to the public.

“Bozeman Fashion Week is a good opportunity for us to have a structured way to bring [mending skills] to the public,” Langen said. “People have asked us to teach workshops forever, but it’s just hard to get things together. Events like this are good ways to gain that structure.”

Co-owner of Studio Wheelhouse Grace Washko said she appreciates that Rarebird is encouraging attendees to create their pieces from scratch.

“The notion that you can put together looks from found pieces or mended pieces or reconstructed pieces is a huge component of what fashion looks like today,” Washko said.

As part of fashion week, Studio Wheelhouse hosted a screening of “Paris is Burning” on Tuesday. According to Washko the film was chosen because its message is important.

“We are accessing the queer community and queer roots in fashion, and also just engaging people who might just be curious in learning more about specific cultural aspects of fashion,” she said.

As fashion week comes to a close, participants and organizers are gearing up for the final model workshop on Friday and the highly anticipated Gala at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds on Valentine’s Day.

“We’re excited to see more collaboration in looks where we have a clothing designer and a jewelry designer working together, or we have a whole bunch of furries getting together to make their fursuits,” Nielson said.

10 percent of all Gala proceeds will be donated to Montana 4 Palestine, a local advocacy group focused on Palestinian liberation, according to its website. Parry said the organizers made this choice because fashion cannot be separated from world issues.

“We can’t have global liberation without self-expression,” she said.

“The more we understand about our world, the more likely we are to make good choices on behalf of other humans because we understand each other,” she said.

For more information about the fashion week’s events or to purchase tickets for the Gala, visit https://www.bozemanfashionweek.com/.