It starts with a simple shirt. A smart, handsome, collared
men’s shirt that hangs in variations on a rack in Seaplane (827
NW 23rd). While the ease of fit and the soft precision of tailoring
can’t be appreciated until worn, the patterns on the crisp fabric
caught my eye immediately: a floral in dark, romantic tones, another a
liberty print in prairie pastels, cool citrus stripes, a dotted pink,
all with an unfamiliar name on the tag: Minor Poet.
Upon inquiry, I was pleased to find that the design duo behind Minor
Poet—whose future stretches far beyond the cornerstone of a dress
shirt—is John Kwon and Kerry-Ann Kimbrell. I was
first introduced to Kimbrell when she was an intern under the
formidably talented Adam Arnold, and then as a participant in
last year’s Mercury fashion show, where she showed a tidy dotted
dress scented with the coffee she’d used to dye it. She cited
Sassy-era Betsey Johnson as the genesis of her interest
in fashion design.
A year later, Kimbrell and her partner Kwon are spending their days
in a modern, airy Northeast workspace that they share with a number of
other working creatives. Currently, they’re hatching a collection for a
fall line that shifts concentration to women’s wear, featuring
versatile pieces like tunics that work as well with jeans as they
function as mini shifts, all with an emphasis on natural fabrics.
Although it exists primarily in sketch form at present, the fall
collection takes its cue from the ways in which stylish Portlanders
have adapted their look to an active lifestyle in shifty weather. Which
is to say that while the practicalities of wool might be maximized,
there’s also room for sheer adornment; some of the pieces feature
whimsical flower accents fashioned from fabric, for example, not unlike
those seen in the recent collections of Phillip Lim.
Kimbrell, aside from her own designs, favors tights and miniskirts
paired with pieces from Foundation Garments (2712 NE Alberta),
Sofada (2937 E Burnside), Seaplane, and the recently shut
Denwave. She is the tailor and primary apparel designer of Minor
Poet, having graduated from the program at the Art Institute of
Portland—with less than a year of post-graduate life under her
belt, she’s already designed someone’s wedding dress.
Kwon—Kimbrell’s fit model—pairs Minor Poet’s button-down
shirts with a wardrobe that is approximately half vintage, plus jeans,
and a bit of Adam Arnold. Kwon got his degree in graphic design at the
Pacific Northwest College of Arts, and went on to work for local titan
Nike. A Portland refugee out of Los Angeles, where he lived
before migrating with “a caravan” of likeminded friends (he is
originally from San Francisco) 12 years ago, he, like many, was
attracted to rents cheap enough to allow young people to inhabit whole
houses(!) with basements(!).
The skills Kwon brings to the Minor Poet partnership reflect his
background in print design, and he is responsible for the visual
branding of the line, which eventually plans to expand to other realms,
like stationary and accessories. He also acts as a collaborator and
sounding board for Kimbrell’s apparel creations. Although he speaks
without bitterness of his experience in the corporate design world,
it’s clear that he is fascinated with being part of a tiny operation
that personally sees things through from start to finish. Both are of
the mindset that they would rather keep things small and controlled,
maintaining local production without relinquishing their ownership and
creative voice. Retaining that ownership is in fact one of their
primary goals. Perhaps that sheds some light on their choice of the
name Minor Poet: While researching magazines for her senior collection,
Kimbrell came across an image of a room bathed in natural light, where
she imagined a writer kept their workplace; it was an environment that
seemed to capture the subtle, bookish qualities she wanted to emulate
in her apparel. Later, it was a quote from Leonard Cohen that
sealed the deal in finding a name to bridge the sentiment, one that he
gave in response to the idea of himself as “poet,” up against a history
that includes Dante,
Shakespeare, and Homer: “I always thought of
myself as a competent, minor poet. I know who I’m up against.”