Hundreds made the two-elevator pilgrimage up to the top floor of the “Stinky Pinky” [US Bancorp Tower] for the inaugural Portland Fashion Week show last Friday, October 20—although most of the familiar faces that habitually haunt Portland fashion events were absent. But with a couple more nights bringing up the rear of Portland Fashion Week, […]
Marjorie Skinner
Marjorie Skinner is the Portland Mercury's Managing Editor, author of the weekly Sold Out column chronicling the area's independent fashion and retail industry, and a frequent contributor to the film and other arts and feature sections of the paper. She has been writing about Portland life and culture for the Mercury since 2001, produces one of Portland's largest annual spring fashion shows, and occasionally answers emails.
Posted inMovies & TV
Don’t Touch
Shortbus Would Rather Just Talk
The obvious advantage to John Cameron Mitchell’s second film, Shortbus, is that many people will see it, and continue to talk about it, because of the sex. Frustrated by what he interpreted as a “lack of respect” toward sex in American cinema, Mitchell—who, five years ago, directed Hedwig and the Angry Inch—has filmed graphic, well-lit, […]
Posted inSold Out
Sold Out
Fashion Week, and Arthur
We’re really pulling up the rear here. In a season of fashion weeks around the globe, Portland’s small and relatively novel series of events is one of the last, well behind the grand affairs of Paris, New York, and Milan, and even trailing second-tier cities like Los Angeles. Or rather, one can think of it […]
Posted inSold Out
Sold Out
Fashion by—Hic!—Flashlight
Not to insinuate that you are easily swayed by alcohol (ahem), but sometimes it takes a little fanfare to remind us when and where to shop. Luckily, the world of commerce is keen to spur you on, plunging into the pre-holiday season of shopping events, where sales, performances, special deals, and (often free) booze are […]
Posted inSold Out
Sold Out
Portland’s Hardest Working Designer
As we take a breather between the year’s two major fashion weeks (September’s the Collections, and Portland Fashion Week, which begins October 20), biding our time with internet links to other fashion weeks around the globe (New York, London, Milan), there is one Portland designer who is currently the busiest of them all: Magalí Corzo. […]
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Sold Out
New Stores that Won’t Bankrupt You
While it may be the byproduct of gentrification and other popular controversies, for the purposes of this column all I care about is that shopping on North Mississippi is getting better and better. There’s the Memoir/Duchess shop (909 N Beech), where you can find clothing made from vintage patterns, plus custom suits and paper goods. […]
Posted inSold Out
Sold Out
Shopping: Departmentalized
It may not have been as attention grabbing as the demise of Marshall Fields, but it’s still hard for Portlanders not to notice that the familiar Meier & Frank store downtown has been transformed into Macy’s. Having acquired May Department Stores in February of ’05, Federated Department Stores (the huge corporation behind Macy’s), is converting […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Close to Home
Heartaches of The Last Kiss
A remake of Gabriele Muccino’s L’Ultimo Bacio, the script for The Last Kiss comes from Paul Haggis, also responsible for Million Dollar Baby and Crash—both films I disliked for their heavy handedness. Kiss, therefore, is a welcome surprise; a film about romantic relationships and infidelities that’s so spot-on that I cried almost as much as […]
Posted inSold Out
Sold Out
The Hugest Summer Sale of Them All
I came here from San Francisco, where there are hardly any seasons at all. The advantage to being a child of the great California Drought was that I could wear my clothes year-round, never had to consider the possibility of rain, and simply layered according to whether it was “foggy” or “foggier” that day. To […]
Posted inSold Out
SOLD OUT
This Week in Fashion
If you’re like most fashion hounds in town, you probably need to stop and take a wee break from all the sartorial mayhem bounding down the improvised runways that make up the Collections series. No? Onward, then. This week sees the last half of the series, one that features some of the best and brightest […]
Posted inFashion
Fashion of Fall
Prepare Your Fall Wardrobe NOW—with Help from Portland’s Best Designers and Their Latest Show, the Collections
Photography by Angela Cash Say good-bye to the playful days of summer. And while carousing on the grass in the rompers and ruffles of this past spring and summer’s collections may have been what we needed after a long winter, it’s time to welcome back fall—and a return to a slightly more formal, more mature […]
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Sold Out
Fall Shoes Have Arrived!
With the Collections series of fashion shows right around the corner, and Portland Fashion Week following that in October, soon we’ll all be thinking A LOT about clothes. Garments. Tailoring. Fabrics. So before we head into that all-important season for fashion design known as “fall,” let’s forget about everything above the ankle and focus on […]