New on the horizon. Gretchen Jones is a fashion designer and model who apprenticed with Elizabeth Dye and launched her eponymous collection last year. Now she has reconsidered and reinvented with a particular focus on the well-wrought detail. See the fruits of her imagination at a cocktail party and introduction of her new line Moth Love on November 17 at 7 PM at Amalee (909 N Beech).
Posted on October 31, 2007 | Filed under designer | Permalink
design: Liza Rietz. photo Pete Springer
Where can you find work by the designers who showed at Portland Fashion Week? Here is a quick guide. Of course, some runway looks won’t be available until spring, but some designers, (The Collections crew, for example) took their looks off the runway, and straight into production and into shops.
Find Souchi cashmere at Suzi Johnson’s shop also called Souchi (807 NW 23rd) on 23rd.
Find work by Holly Stalder, Kate Towers, and Emily Ryan, and Leanne Marshall’s Leanimal at Stalder and Towers’ Seaplane (827 NW 23rd). Also find Leanimal at Foundation Garments (2712 NE Alberta).
Sameunderneath can be found at their two shops in Portland (915 N Shaver off N Mississippi and 806 NW 23rd) as well as Mario’s 3.10 (17031 SW 72nd Avenue Tigard). [read more]
We have been searching for the perfect vest to wear over both the straight and narrow like a t-shirt tucked into long straight high waist pants and voluminous, like IDOM’s black poet shirtdress. Here it is. Genevieve Dellinger’s wool houndstooth vest with a jersey lining to keep it from being too uptight.
It is perfect because its buttons and holes suggest closure, but do not deliver. Like any good work of art it has enough ambiguity to keep things interesting.
Find it at Denwave (811 E Burnside).
Posted on October 28, 2007 | Filed under designer, shop | Permalink
Today and tomorrow mark the grand reopening of Macy’s (612 NW 5th) downtown Portland location in the former Meier & Frank Building beginning at 9:30 each day with a big celebration, music, gifts (if you get their early enough) and expecially, a chance to see the building’s makeover.
Elizabeth Dye, who just showed her collection at Portland Fashion Week, will have her collection at the shop she co-owns with Joy Cohen, The English Dept. (1124 SE Alder) in the coming weeks. Go see! In the meantime, you ought to stop in because Dye says that they’re already receiving their shipments of holiday goods and so have had to have a sale through the end of October on fall dresses and separates.
This is a rare opportunity to get your hands on the kinds of laid back goods with a social-conscience backstory that Sameunderneath is known for at a fraction of their normal prices. Sameunderneath celebrates Portland Fashion Week with a serious sale this weekend of end-of-season goods at 50-70% off at the old Music Millenium (801 NW 23rd) location on NW 23rd. Beginning tomorrow, October 19 from 2-8 PM and continuing Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday from 10-7. Busy times for Sameunderneath, also launching their Spring 08 collection for the Saturday night, October 20th Portland Fashion Week show. In recent years, as the line has evolved from its t-shirt genesis into its present diversified cut-and-sewn, knitwear, and eco-friendly goods, we’ve been anticipating each new collection more and more.
What an interesting time of year, when the cooler weather necessities of layering can lead to myriad built looks, the mad stylist’s dream. And nothing would make us happier than streets filled with the kinds of interesting, sculptural knitwear we were treated to on the European runways for the Fall shows this past spring. In Portland, Physical Element (1124 NW Lovejoy) is carrying a fascinating line of modern, architectural knitwear, Moyuru Japan. Find statement-making sweaters, tunics, skirts, trousers and coats. Yum.
Among the designers showing on opening night of Portland Fashion Week, there are several who will offer you plenty of homegrown, elegant options for occasion dressing, specifically the grown-up, polished dress.
amai unmei is Portland-based designer Allison Covington’s line of classic, clean-line evening dresses and coats in rich silks: chiffon, charmeuse, brocade. In launching amai unmei last year, Covington was inspired by the Japanese high art of tsutsumi, or wrapping. What results are not von Furstenberg wrap dresses, but looks that definitely reference the notion of wrapping the body as one would a gift. amai unmei is available in Portland at boutiques including Mimi & Lena (1948 NE Broadway), Artemisia (300 SW Stark), and Ella’s Boutique (2529 NE Alberta).
A note to the curious: amai unmei (pronounced ah-mah’-ee oon’-may), means ‘sweet destiny’ in Japanese.
amai unmei shows at Portland Fashion Week Night One, Friday October 19. Doors at 6. Tickets available at the Portland Fashion Week website.
And then check out the amai unmei trunk show at Ella’s Boutique next week.
Posted on October 17, 2007 | Filed under designer, event | Permalink
This is that dress. The canvas for the adventurous stylist. The dress that a thousand different girls will wear a thousand different ways, layered, adorned, layed back, and every one of them will look sensational. By Lili Bleu, you can find it at Phlox (3962 N Mississippi).
design: Holly Stalder. photo: Sylvie Blum
Portland Fashion Week is a little over a week away, running October 19-24, with nightly fashion shows at Cascade Shipyard featuring collections by more than thirty designers. Most of Portland’s best designers are represented as well as a number of designers from elsewhere have chosen to show here because their business philosophies dovetail with that of the nation’s first sustainable fashion week. For a schedule of who is showing each night (every night is a group show) and to buy tickets, hit the PFW website.
There are four noontime panel discussions during Portland Fashion Week, including a discussion between boutique owners and designers at the Art Institute on Friday, October 19 at noon, and three panels at The Gerding Theater at the Armory at noon: Monday, October 22 on how to start a fashion business in Portland; Tuesday, October 23 addressing fashion and the creative economy in Portland; and Wednesday, October 24 on what we mean when we say “sustainable” when we’re talking about fashion.
ultra will be there, covering it all with nightly runway and party photos, scene reports, and runway reviews. And if you sign up for our ultra fresh email (which normally is delivered weekly), we’ll send you a daily report of what it is, what it was, and what it shall be.
Beginning this week, we’ll preview Portland Fashion Week with profiles of the designers and more. But why wait? You could, with a little time on your hands, click away at the complete list of designers below and get a little look at what you might look forward to.
Alula [Seattle]
Amai Unmei
Anna Cohen
A Broken Spoke
BlairWear
Del Forte [San Francisco]
Duchess
IDOM
Elizabeth Dye
Emily Katz
Emily Ryan (at Seaplane)
Garnish
Genevieve Dellinger (at Denwave)
Habitude [Dallas]
Holly Stalder
Izzy Lane [UK]
Kate Towers
Lara Miller [Chicago]
Leanimal
Linea by Jess Beebe
Liza Rietz
Lizzie Parker [Seattle]
Love Mert
Lucia (at Garment)
MEWV
Michelle Decourcy
Naturevsfuture [New York]
Nike Considered
Olivia Luca
Pinkham Millinery
Poppi Swim
Saffrona
Sameunderneath
Sofada
Souchi
Stewart + Brown [Los Angeles]
