Oakland Style Week highlights city’s food, clothing and art
By John Ramos
During Fleet Week, San Francisco celebrated its military roots. But across the Bay, in Oakland, it was a matter of style.
The Oakland Style week is an annual celebration to highlight the food, clothing and art of a town that, just last week, made Condé Nast Traveler’s top 10 list for “Best Cities in the United States.”
For all the knocks that Oakland takes from the outside world, there is a genuine sense of pride among the people who live there. No one is ignoring the problems Oakland faces every day but often that’s all anyone ever talks about. So, the tourism group, Visit Oakland, set out to change that.
“For us to create our own narrative of what Oakland is about through the arts through music, art, cuisine, culture. And that was our intent with Oakland Style Week,” said Visit Oakland president and CEO, Peter Gamez. “It’s definitely the diversity. Diversity in thought, diversity in creativeness. We have so much pride and so much to offer. And it’s our week to showcase everything that we have.”
It was the third annual Oakland Style event. During its five-day run, in addition to food and fashion, it featured fine art exhibits, a downtown jazz brunch, and a competition between mixologists to see who could make the best cocktail. Throughout the week, all across town, there were pop-up events, like a downtown exhibition of custom sneaker art at the SoleSpace Lab.
“We hope they take away that they have an agency around their clothing and their shoes,” said SoleSpace founder Jeff Perlstein. “It’s not just stuff you have to buy and throw away. You can get creative.”
On Sunday, they were getting creative at the Oakland Museum of California. At the “Cuisine + Couture” event, several hundred visitors sampled food prepared by local chefs, including Town Fare Cafe’s owner, Michele McQueen.
“Whether it be soul food, Latin food, Asian cuisine…Oakland has an abundance of culture,” she said. “And an abundance of comfort, in history and all the things. So, for me, Oakland is cultural comfort food.”
But style is also reflected in fashion, and a number of students from the Oakland School of the Arts displayed their creations on the runway. The challenge was to design clothing inspired by a local restaurant and Za’Moria T. Spikes created her billowing, chocolate-hued gown as an homage to a French dessert known as “croque en bouche.”
“I’m just glad that I got this opportunity because this was a tough one,” she said. “It was a tough one to make.”
Stephanie Verrieres, the Fashion Design Chair for the school, said the variety of lifestyles in Oakland is what defines the city’s fashion vibe.
“I would say eclectic. Eclectic would be a good word,” she said. “You know, Oakland is so great about embracing all people from all places.”
And when it comes to fashion, she said everyone presents their individual image to the world, whether they put much thought into what they wear or not.
“We all have to get dressed,” said Verrieres. “And so, even if you don’t consider yourself a fashionista, you’re still making choices every day with what you’re wearing. And part of that consideration is how you want to put yourself out there, how you want people to perceive you.”
The same goes for cities. During “Style” week, Oakland is putting itself out there. “Diverse,” “eclectic,””cultural comfort,” no matter how Oakland’s style is described, it all points to the same thing: people coming from very different viewpoints and lifestyles to meet in a place they can call home.
