Event about women enjoying being girls

Can a sparkly feathered party hat be a symbol of female empowerment?

Absolutely, if you ask Mikele Keiffer, co-owner of Tuzzie Muzzie, a Seattle company that makes unique party hats.

In the past three to five years, her company has gotten more and more requests for party hats for girlfriend get-togethers. For instance, there was the woman who was celebrating her 50th birthday with some 25 girlfriends. Party hats for all.

"It's all about celebrating our friendships with women," said Keiffer, one of about 150 vendors at the CRAVEshow! in downtown Seattle this weekend.

Billed as an "indulgence and style event for women," the show is the brainchild of Melody Biringer, founder of the "Crave" brand, which includes books and parties featuring frocks, froufrou and pampering. Biringer started the parties, which are now held in 15 cities nationwide, because she found women often said they should get together but rarely found the time to do so. "They needed an excuse," she said.

This is the first year for the show, which Biringer describes as "a CRAVEparty! on steroids."

On Saturday, women wandered over three floors of the Pike Street Annex, watching cooking demonstrations, listening to "lifestyle experts," getting manicures and brow waxes and looking at booths displaying handbags, jewelry, environmentally friendly clothing and financial-planning information.

Sure, all of it together, all at once, could be overwhelmingly girly.

But "women have a right to indulge in style so that they feel good," said Sue Montgomery, 49, a stay-at-home mother and one of three friends from Vancouver, B.C., who are making the show part of their getaway weekend.

Besides, said Montgomery's friend Diane Alfredson, 50, a credit-union branch manager, what she likes about Crave events is they often feature local vendors, many of them women who have started their own businesses.

That's one reason Stefanie Lee, 40, a Seattle apparel designer, decided to go. She was curious about local women entrepreneurs — "like: 'What do I want to be when I grow up?' " she said.

"It's about women bonding and learning from each other, supporting each other, supporting women-owned businesses," said Lee's friend Sharon Tsutsumi, 40, a marketing manager in Seattle.

Kerry Rupp, 36, of Seattle, just launched her own business: Holiday Golightly, which does travel planning for girlfriend getaways.

"Women are getting married later, they're more independent. They're doing more things together," Rupp said. That's why she thinks girlfriend getaways and parties have taken off in the past few years.

Guys have been holding poker nights and golfing weekends "since the beginning of time," said Whitney Brown, director of catering for the Alexis Hotel in Seattle, which offers a Downtown Divas package, including a spa treatment and chocolate-covered strawberries. Now that women have more money, they're simply doing a female equivalent, she said

Susan Holberg, a receptionist from Issaquah who's "around 50," said when she was growing up, events for women were "more about taking care of the husband and family — and you should just be happy doing that."

That women's getaways, pampering parties and such are so popular now, she says, is because "people realize the time has come."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com