What Are You Doing For Oscar Night?

There’s more to Oscar night than Joan Rivers. As the night of glitz and glamour arrives, several Madison business owners, led by Asiye’s Boutique owner and style expert Asiye Kay, are rolling out the red carpet and putting a stylish local spin on Hollywood. 

For the second straight year Asiye’s Boutique will be the center of Shoreline Oscar night activity on Sunday, Feb. 24. The “Oscars In Madison” gala will be hosted by Asiye. It will start with a meal prepared by chef Silvio Suppa of Madison’s Café Allegre, followed by a cocktail reception, and then a fashion show featuring some of today’s most unique formal designs, and live coverage of the Oscar telecast at the celebrated Madison Art Cinemas. The event will be co-hosted by WTNH-TV meteorologist Erika Martin. 

The event has international style sense but a local flavor. Daniel Hand High School students will be models and the beneficiaries for its second annual “Oscars In Madison” event will be held on Sunday, February 24. All proceeds from “Oscars In Madison” will benefit scholarship funds for local students that want to enter the fashion business. 

“It’s the ultimate Academy Award celebration for a great cause,” said Asiye. “Last year the community came together to celebrate fashion, artistic excellence and the passions of our local students that want to enter the fashion industry. This year will be more even more glamorous and I’m very happy that we’re showing our commitment to this business through our Main Street expansion at the same time.”

Asiye’s new and expanded Main St. boutique will now feature two floors and 4,000 square feet of women’s fashions for evening wear, formal wear and now casual, everyday blouses and accessories. Asiye’s is now Madison’s largest downtown retail location, and one of the shoreline’s most sophisticated fashion showrooms. 

The expansion re-positions Asiye’s from its prom and evening wear specialty to a more varied and themed approach. It will now bring its detailed and personal customer shopping experience to a more frequent and varied customer. It will still be the “go to” location for prom dresses, attracting young women and their parents from as far away as Hartford and Providence. But it will also attract women who are shopping for evening wear, casual wear and more of the everyday unique fashions that Asiye’s is known for.

 The expanded store will include inventory from Asiye’s Guilford boutique, which is where entrepreneur and influential style expert Asiye Kay (ah-see-YAY) started in 2004. It is located in an entirely new space adjacent to the Madison Arts Cinema, complimenting the downstairs devoted to casual wear with elegant and themed rooms in the second floor location. The five upstairs rooms will be themed by color and style. It will provide a complete showroom and shopping experience for young and adult women. 

Asiye believes the new expansion also represents a commitment to downtown retailing. Although Madison has seen substantial turnover and even vacancies in its Route 1 strip, she believes it is the optimal location for her growing business, which will expand into ecommerce later this spring.

“This is a huge opportunity for my business and part of how I want to fulfill my goal as a unique fashion retailer,” says Asiye. “For nine years, since the beginning of my business, I have been searching for the perfect location. I believe I have found it. I am committed to the community as much as I am committed to my passion – which is bringing sophisticated style to life through my store.” 

A sought-after style expert, Kay has combined community involvement with elegant style and shrewd business acumen. She developed her original fashion training and sensibility development in Istanbul.  Working in retail from a young age, she began to cultivate her instinct for style and design, focusing primarily on an eclectic array of European clientele.  She worked her way through college, graduating from the University of Ankara with a degree in organizational psychology, and went on to a successful career in business consulting before coming to the United States in 1998.  

Kay frequently travels to shows in New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Paris and Istanbul and also produces her own designs.  She has an unparalleled eye for up-and-coming designers and a unique ability to work with her clients to develop their own personal sense of style.  

“Oscars In Madison” tickets are $75 and because of limited space will be available on a first-come-first-served basis.  Tickets can be purchased either in person at Asiye’s Boutique at 757 Main St. in Madison or by phone at 203-245-1200. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and personal checks are accepted.  Please address checks to “Oscars In Madison” and visit our website at www.oscarsinmadison.com.

Presenting sponsors include Timothy Pamment Salon, Madison Wine Shop, Robb Cyr Photography, 
Atlas Software and Consulting, Guilford White House Florist, Minuteman Press, 
Angie Lu Tailors 
and WTNH News 8.