DURANGO — When USA Today pronounced Durango the “least fashion conscious” city in America in 1988, few predicted the wound would last.
Yet it has festered.
A Facebook group, “Trying to Make Durango a Better Dressed Town in General” (MDBD), is only the most recent manifestation of Durango’s ongoing sartorial identity crisis.
Founded five years ago, MDBD is committed to helping “Durangoans understand that it is not OK to be poorly dressed all of the time.” Socks “should not be worn with sandals,” it gravely intones. “Hunting jackets are to be worn hunting.”
But to the feisty — and thriving — group of boutique retailers who dominate Main Avenue’s rag trade, such lectures are hogwash.
“That stigma we’ve gotten caught with is unreasonable,” says Rani Holt, the owner of Gloss, which opened three years ago. “Our town is savvy about fashion, much more so now than before.”
Tell that to the 97 inconsolable members of MDBD. While the Snowdown winter festival’s annual “Fashion Dos and Don’ts” pays winking homage to Durango’s dowdy reputation, the rhetoric of its discussion board evokes both trauma victims and the civil-rights movement.
Chelsea Blair Serzen writes, “I am seriously disturbed by the lack of fashion sense in Durango!”
Erin Neale, on the other hand, rejects such despair. Neale was scheduled to give an “inspirational speech” at her high school. “And I, my friends, am inspiring the people of Durango to dress better.”
Zach McGill simply became defensive.
“Being one of the worst-dressed towns in the nation is a badge of honor.”
