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Liz

Liz is a freelance writer with a day job. She writes about feminism, fashion, her forties and family....

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Revolutionary Style

Liz O'Donnell

Boston is buzzing right now. Boston Fashion Week, The Boston Film Festival and The Boston Arts Festival all start today. Plus the Red Sox are home and battling the Blue Jays. They are still aiming for first place while fighting for the wild card.

Some people think Boston and fashion are mutually exclusive. They think baseball caps and Balenciaga don’t mix. Sure Boston has its own eclectic look. We may eschew the four inch heels so popular in New York because we walk a lot – over cobblestones.  And unlike sleek Los Angelinos, we have to dedicate entire bureau drawers to turtlenecks and long johns. But Bostonians are smart and original and that contributes to our style.

Our fashion savvy can be traced back to the Revolutionary War. Many of the Colonial Minutemen fought the war in their own clothes. There was no budget for uniforms so they dressed in their farm clothes or their hunting clothes. Taking a page from the French and Indian Wars, some of them added Native American touches, such as face paint, to frighten the enemy.

The Red Coats may have looked dapper, but the Minutemen won the war. The Colonials knew wearing head-to-toe designer had no place off the runway. They knew how to take a look, add their own personal touches, and adapt it to fit their lifestyles. Isn’t that the true definition of style? The Revolutionary War, also known as the War of Independence, freed us from more than British rule. It saved us from centuries of fashion victimhood and gave us the independence to be ourselves. It’s good to be in Beantown.