Two weeks ago, the annual RISD fashion show strutted through the city. The week before that the five-day Providence Fashion Week, now in its second year, took the runway. And next week, all week, Sunday through Saturday, is the inaugural StyleWeek Providence.

“We want this to be a mini New York Fashion Week in Providence,” says Rosanna Ortiz Sinel, founder and director of StyleWeek. “We are trying to be that ambitious.”

“Fashion people are finding Providence,” says Conrad Lamour, a designer, and founder of Providence Fashion Week.

Over the course of its May run, Lamour’s event drew 1,500 people, he says, double last year’s attendance. This year, the event involved four hair stylists, 40 models and two dozen designers, who came from as far as Texas, Louisiana and Japan.

“Providence is a very unique city, with a European feel,” Lamour says. “There are venues that don’t even seem like New England.”

Sinel came to the same conclusion in selecting Providence as the site for the 14 runway shows and after parties that will comprise her event. The city has character, tourists, a culture of creativity and colleges with fashion programs, she says, and lots of interesting venues. It’s between Boston and New York, with strong connections to both.

“Everything is accessible and the food is insane,” she says.

But fashion comes first. And StyleWeek fashion, which involves 16 designers, including two from this year’s “Project Runway” show on Lifetime, has a focus.

“We want the focus to be more on the business of fashion,” Sinel says. “I didn’t want this to be a glorified cocktail party. I want buyers and press to get the V.I.P. treatment.”

Clothing buyers for boutiques and high-end stores, stylists and fashion writers are invited to attend the event. “These aren’t people in the limelight of fashion,” Sinel says. “But they are very influential when it comes to fashion design.”

The public is also invited to attend the runway shows, on a space-availability basis.

“The public are buyers, too,” Sinel says.

Initially, the plans for StyleWeek were more modest — just three days and a half a dozen designers. But word got out and designers wanted in. So Sinel began expanding the event, finally capping it at seven days and 16 designers, turning away six other designers, including another from “ProjectRunway,” its 2005 season.

For the general public, the best known designer participating in StyleWeek is Jonathan Peters, 30, who grew up in Woonsocket and is now living inProvidence. He appeared on this season’s “Project Runway” and finished sixth out of 16 designers in the reality TV competition.

Peters asked to be in StyleWeek.

“Unfortunately, there are not a lot of platforms for artists to express themselves here,” he says. “That designers in Rhode Island have a viable platform to show their work is phenomenal. It lets designers stay here and not feel like they have to go to New York or L.A. to make it in the fashion world.”

After Peters joined StyleWeek, he called his friend and fellow “Project Runway” designer Maya Luz, who’s now living in Connecticut. And she joined, too.

“From a publicity standpoint, it’s better to have two ‘Project Runway’ designers as opposed to one,” Peters says.

Peters appears to have top billing in StyleWeek. His runway show is the finale, following the show of another Providence designer, Jessica Abernethy, who grew up in Connecticut and spent high school and college in Germany. Abernethy’s designs are “focused on clean, forward and wearable apparel,” according to her StyleWeek bio.

Peters’ new collection, which he calls “Ingénue,” will involve about two dozen garments, both men’s and women’s, with a common aesthetic.

“I’ve tried to embrace the romantic aspects of my work, which is always romantic and fanciful.”

Peters says his line will emphasize detail, hand-dying, texture and soft, neutral, muted colors.

“Because women are inherently more willing to take more chances with clothing, my women’s line will come off as ready to wear. My men’s wear will seem more conceptual.

“I want men to be more forward thinking in their wardrobe and less rigid about what is male and what is female, which is not to say I’ll have men in dresses. But I will use different lines and colors.”

In addition to the runway shows, StyleWeek also offers two fashion installations. These involve models not walking through a room, but standing in it for an extended time.

“You can see the fashions longer,” Sinel says.

The installations and the runway shows are restricted to 200 people, with priority given to buyers and reviewers. However, after each installation and runway show are parties open to the public.

“The designers will be there,” Sinel says. “People will mingle with the designers, which you can’t do at the shows. That is a huge plus, and they’ll see the fashion shows on televisions.”

Fashion is design and expression, she says. But fashion can only go so far. To make a good impression, she says, personality is more important.

“A woman who walks in a room carrying a high-end handbag who has a [bad] attitude is not stylish. She is just a woman who has spent too much on a handbag.”

When Roseanne Morrison was scouting new street looks in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District late last year, she spotted a young woman sporting brown lace-up boots, blue jeans and an attitude.

“It was kind of insouciant, ‘I just rolled out of bed and threw my boots on,’” said Morrison, fashion director at New York retail consultant Doneger Group. “I knew this was something different and that it was going to drive a new look.”

That freshness has pushed even luxury designers such as Christian Louboutin to market so-called combat boots, with peep- toe platform versions going for $1,495. Women are pairing them with shorts, miniskirts and floral dresses, helping to make boots the fastest-growing part of women’s fashion footwear in spite of scorching weather in cities like New York and Miami.

U.S. boot sales surged 37 percent in the year through March, bolstering a rebound in luxury spending as the economic recovery strengthens. Stars Miley Cyrus and Chloe Sevigny are wearing styles from military to motorcycle, prompting retailers Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and Barneys New York to stockLouboutin and Rag & Bone to appeal to upscale shoppers.

“It’s a way of saying, ‘I am a tough, cool and bad girl and don’t mess with me,’ and at the same time, women want to stay feminine,” said Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York. “The only faux pas is not to have confidence. You have to look like you can kick some butt.”

Women are shopping for themselves again after surviving the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Bain & Co. projects U.S. luxury sales will rise 4 percent this year after falling 17 percent to $54 billion in 2009.

Grunge Chic

The chunky boot trend was popular during a previous slowdown in the ‘90s. Back then, so-called grunge music fans embraced the look, an evolution of what punk rockers wore in the ’70s, Doonan said. The “mother ship,” he said, is the thick- soled Dr. Martens that became popular during that era, which typically cost $100 to $200.

What’s different now is that the look is “less rocker, more rugged,” according to Morrison, who specializes in trend analysis at the 64-year-old Doneger Group. It’s part of a return to a broader military trend in fashion, which includes trench coats and utility pants, and is no longer limited to black.

Women’s boot sales rose to $4.91 billion in the 12 months ended in March, compared with $3.6 billion in the previous year, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. That helped spur a 5.8 percent increase in women’s shoe sales to $20.1 billion, the Port Washington, New York-based firm said.

“Boots are going to be a continuing strong trend for the back half,” Wesley Card, chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based Jones Apparel Group Inc., said on an April 28 conference call. “That’s going to be very helpful.”

Jones Apparel has advanced 14 percent this year in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Bigger Boot Sales

Fashion houses that have sent combat boots down the runways in recent years include Alexander Wang and Chloe. Limi Feu showed them in Paris for the spring/summer 2010 season, with voluminous short dresses. Balmain and Ann Demeulemeester have weighed in with their own interpretations.

Neiman Marcus, based in Dallas, sells the $1,495 Louboutin version, with six-inch heels and the designer’s signature red sole. Barneys New York features the women’s Rag & Bone combat boots, both in black and beige, with canvas, for $495. The British label AllSaints Spitalfields displayed five types of women’s combat boots — including light-colored “chalk” and “stone” ones — when it opened a store in New York’s SoHo district on May 21. They are priced $250 to $280.

Jennifer Kline, a 44-year-old mother of two sons and professional model who lives in Wayzata, Minnesota, said she’s one woman who’s saving her money for another style.

‘Trying Too Hard’

“It’s horribly unattractive, and it doesn’t flatter anybody,” said Kline, who has modeled for magazines including Vogue, Shape and Newsweek. “It looks like you’re trying too hard to be cool. For the summer, it’s too heavy.”

Nevertheless, the combat-boot trend “underscores how less- seasonal style is becoming,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD’s chief industry analyst. Boots’ share of women’s footwear sales climbed to 5.2 percent in last year’s second quarter from 4.6 percent a year earlier. That share expanded to 13 percent in the third quarter from 12.4 percent, according to NPD.

Women previously wore other boots after Memorial Day, pairing Deckers Outdoor Corp.’s Ugg Australia sheepskin styles with shorts. Fashionistas who can’t stand the heat should look to shorter styles and open-toe versions — though comfort isn’t what matters most, Morrison said.

“Stilettos, they aren’t comfortable either, but they have been on trend for some time now,” she said. “Fashion first.”

Keith Amari clothing designs announced today that it will participate in the Atlanta International Fashion Week July 13-18, 2010. Several items from the innovative clothing line will be shown and promoted to other international designers, buyers, celebrities and the press also attending the event.

Keith Amari is a distinctively trendsetting clothing line that expresses a unique urban preppy and sassy chic attitude for “today’s emergent and fashion-conscious child.” The Keith Amari style touts a distinctive experience with an element of panache and a bit of edge and flair to its design that is “beyond ordinary.”

The Keith Amari clothing line was launched by Neva Grow Up, Inc. of Miami, FL in 2010 following a five-year period of development. The concept was to make available unique options to its young and sophisticated clientele, primarily aged newborn to thirteen, who “didn’t really have many alternatives to the redundant ‘fashions’ thus far available,” says Renea L. Moss, president and founder of the company.

Striving for originality, the key components to the Keith Amari concept are based on creating uniquely smart fashions for children with a twist; encouraging an individual chic and sassy style with bold and vibrant color while utilizing eco-friendly manufacturing practices. A second fashion line was created for girls, Keith Amari Sweethearts, which promotes the same sense of distinct appeal.

The Keith Amari fashion presence, although just introduced in 2010, is already well-appreciated. The line has previously been featured at the Set It Off 10th Annual Fashion Show in Orlando, Florida and will also be present at the 2010 Emmy Award Secret Room Gifting Suite.

“We are truly excited to present the Keith Amari clothing designs to the world at this event,” said Moss. “The Keith Amari clothing line sets the mood for the youth of today. At the Atlanta International Fashion Week we will be able to promote our innovative perspective to potential prospects who are sure to be partial to our unique approach to fashion for kids.”