While she rarely turns down an opportunity to stock her wardrobe at metro Detroit's Somerset Collection or the boutiques in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, Ruiz usually shops closer to home these days. And that's not just because she's a busy working mom with a two-year-old and jammed social calendar.

"I'm shopping in Grand Rapids a lot more than I used to because the options are a lot better," she says. "The Grand Rapids fashion scene is evolving."

Ruiz not only knows who she is and what belongs in her closet, she knows where she can find it locally. She rattles off a list of Grand Rapids boutiques where she feeds her fashion habit: Lamb in East Hills for Indian-inspired jewelry; Gina's Boutique downtown for stylish, professional dresses she can wear to work; Renee Austin Boutique for a sassy cocktail or knock ‘em dead formal dress; Lee & Birch for scarves and jewelry; East Hills' Pink Blvd. for one of her favorite dress lines called vfish; and Rockford's Jade for all-purpose work or play.

"It's a time when you need to stand out from everyone else. Fashion makes that happen. It says, ‘This is who I am.' Who wants to be ‘that girl' or ‘that guy'? Personally, I want to be Rachael," she quips.

Fashion has arrived in Grand Rapids — and not a moment too soon. These days you need to put almost as much thought into what you're wearing as to where you're going. Whether you're hitting a club to check out a new indie band or settling into a museum on a Friday night, the perfect outfit/venue combination is as crucial as assembling a mix-tape for a crush. If the questionable dive bar requires distressed skinny jeans and a "don't look at me that way" black leather jacket, or posh surroundings call for a boutique chic dress and gumball-sized pearls, fashion is a vehicle for expression. It's about movement, change and evolution.

The Grand Rapids scene has certainly been evolving over the past year, with high-profile events like Runway on Monroe, Style Battle, Fashion Week and Fashion's Night Out. Likewise, you can hardly go to a fundraiser these days that doesn't have a fashion show. It doesn't matter if you're raising money for shelters, affordable housing, children's hospitals or a dog sanctuary — if there is a gathering, there must be a runway. And the hotly anticipated arrival of Anthropologie to Breton Village has local fashionistas daydreaming of other wish-list retailers like H&M, Levi's and Urban Outfitters.

If you ask Jim Murray, general manager at A.K. Rikk's, a contemporary fashion boutique, Grand Rapids has a strong following for style. The success of Fashion's Night Out last fall is one indicator of the town's growing love affair with style.

"People love to shop-even people you wouldn't think love to shop enjoy it," he said. "I think deep down everyone wants to look nice and have that perfect jean, but it's a chore. If it can be fun and you can enjoy it with your friends and feel like you're doing something good for your community, it's going to be a success," he said.

Alyssa Schutter would agree. Schutter was the creator and producer of last May's Runway on Monroe contest, which garnered more than 4,000 online voters and drew almost 2,000 at the live fashion show at Rosa Parks.

If Grand Rapids isn't hungry for fashion, then somebody should break it to Tina Derusha, founder of Spotlight 616, which brought us Style Battle 2010. The September event showcased local clothing retailers, photographers, makeup artists, models and hairstylists squaring off for $2,000 and, more importantly, bragging rights among the city's fashion elites. Like any good fight, Style Battle drew a big crowd. Tickets for the event sold out and hundreds of ArtPrize gawkers pressed to the windows to catch a glimpse of the fabulousness inside.

"We were full inside and full outside," said Derusha, who attributed the interest in Style Battle to more than just trendy togs. "Hair is a big thing in this town, [and] make-up has its own following and crowd."

If you look at the city as a whole working collectively to foster a fashion playground, you'll find a group as tight-knit as, well, a tight sweater. When talk of the evolving local fashion scene surfaces, there is namedropping, retail wish lists, and the kind of gushing normally reserved for teen slumber parties. Like those parties, the popular boys — er, brands — are the talk of the town.

"You look at some of the brands like Isaac Mizrahi and Valentino Red-those types of brands are amazing and are being sold right here in Grand Rapids. It's exciting for the local fashion market," says Rebecca Wierda, president of Leigh's, an upscale women's specialty store in Breton Village. Leigh's has carved a reputation for its selection of - and access to - brands found mostly in major cities as well as its innovative visual merchandising, which rivals some of the industry's best, say peers like Murray and Derusha. And just because you don't see a brand in the windows or on the floor at Leigh's, that doesn't necessarily mean it's not available.

"We have access to things," says Leigh's Creative Director Patrick Plank, the guru behind its displays.

Murray of A.K. Rikk's confesses that Plank is "actually making me kinda jealous" when it comes to window displays. Even so, Murray is the name you hear most when talk turns to local fashion. When I ask Grand Rapids Social Diary Founder Laura Caprara about local fashion's 2011 direction, she replies simply: "Ask Jim. I just listen."

That, then, begs the question: What's on Murray's radar when it comes to the Grand Rapids fashion future? He points to the fashion-conscious youth of the area, for one.

"Kendall is being pushed really hard to come up with real situations as far as a program. Kids do internships at local retailers. We're seeing changes with young people-seeing another generation of people stepping up their game. As city growth, it's a natural progression."

Murray also covets the arrival of an H&M and a Levi's store in the area, but if you believe in the "If you build it, they will come" philosophy, then heavy-weight women's apparel retailer Anthropologie fits in neatly with the package Grand Rapids is assembling. The chain store — selling clothing, accessories, decorative items and gifts — is celebrated for its evocative catalogs and branding and is owned by Urban Outfitters, Inc., which also owns retail brands Urban Outfitters and Free People.

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Scott Wierda, managing partner of CWD Real Estate Investment, has been leasing to shopping and retail tenants for more than 20 years. He explains why Grand Rapids is a good market for Anthropologie right now. Put simply: Breton Village matched the store's search for markets that matched their profile in terms of education, income, housing and traffic patterns. The Philadelphia-based retailer, which typically eschews big malls for fringe developments, also found a kindred spirit in Leigh's, he says.

"Leigh's was the determining factor. They loved it and thought it was one of the finest women's clothing stores in Michigan. It had a similar customer profile. If Grand Rapids can support Leigh's, Anthropologie thought they would be well-received," he says.

Local media outlets have picked up on the ever-quickening fashion pulse and brought it to the limelight. FOX-17's Emily Richett often covers fashion events in her morning entertainment reports. Likewise, WZZM's "Take Five" hosts regular fashion segments. While eightWest does fashion segments about three times a week, those pieces always seem to generate the most viewer feedback, Ruiz says.

All of the events and attention have elevated fashion as a topic of conversation. That's a welcome development for local boutique owners, who ply their trade with passion and, of course, style.

"I think it's great to remind people that fashion is an aesthetic that can be treated and talked about seriously," said owner Brynne Roberts at Muse Boutique, located on Cherry Street. "So many people talk about how much better shopping in Grand Rapids is now than it was just a few years ago."

Photos: Top: Pink Blvd. for Style Battle, photo by Nick Stokes. Right: Gina's Boutique/Lia Rose, photo by Michelle Skrobot.

New Fashion Blogger

Meet Tieka (tee-kuh). She's living along the shoreline of West Michigan and piecing together her style blog (selectivepotential.blogspot.com) — one Minnie Mouse-inspired sweater and tubular scarf at a time. The graphic designer and fashion blogger adores music and adventures. "Personal style, inspiration and down-to-earth" are three words she prefers to describe her blog but characterizing it in terms of three articles of clothing might be more fun. "My readers would absolutely agree on this: sleeved floral dress, lace up boots and patterned tights." Tieka's blog showcases outfits within the context of familiar locale (Robinette's Apple Haus, Windmill Island in Holland and a parade in Grand Haven) in a fashion magazine spread meets little kid's viewfinder kind of way.

Meet girl-next-door, beach babe and fashion vixen Andrea Horn. Horn is represented by the Matthew Agency, Inc. and is an extremely versatile model that easily slips from fashion to commercial. With a strong presence on the runway, she's known for "stares that kill and smiles that melt your heart," according to Jerrad Matthew, owner and director of the Matthew Agency. Her talent's stretch beyond modeling and head behind the camera where Horn is a student at Kendall College of Art and Design studying — you guessed it — photography. She has been the face of Fashion's Night Out, worked with many of the area's top photographers and walked in nearly every runway show the Matthew Agency has produced. She's got the backing of A.K. Rikk's General Manager Jim Murray when it comes to work ethic and looks darling yet durable enough to take a cell phone to the head if she ever got Naomi Campbell miffed.