Sold Out

A long time ago I made a decision to forego any garment that was made in China (or Vietnam, or Macao… you get the idea), and to support independent designers. Living in Portland, this has been overwhelmingly painless—the city is chockablock with interesting boutiques stocking unique, independent designs from home and abroad. But with such […]

This paper has been kicking up a lot of animal-related controversy lately. After slaughtering and eating a sheep this past January [“Silencing the Lamb,” Feature, Jan 4], we caused such a hullabaloo of a dialogue that you’d think we invented the concept of humans using animals for food all by ourselves. That’s not something I […]

The mark of a keen interest in fashion is the resiliency of your enthusiasm for looking at fall and winter clothes for next year after having been wearing those of this year for four or five months and counting. And so again the rarefied industry pores over, with great interest, the ready-to-wear lines for Fall/Winter […]

The first Portland fashion show I ever heard of took place in my driveway. Part of a multimedia party/art show, I remember being roped in to model dusty vintage finds from the ’70s and a dress with a matching headpiece fashioned entirely out of tinfoil. Such was the runway scene in Portland not so long […]

Seasons, which are so essential to the fashion world’s ebb and flow, can be frustrating when they refuse to wrap themselves up in time for the prescribed wardrobe trends of their successor. I’m ready for bare legs and fresh pedicures, and losing my enthusiasm for thick tights and sweater dresses, discounted though they may be. […]

You don’t need to be told anymore that there are a multitude of prolific and creative apparel designers in Portland. But one thing you see very few of are shoe designers. In fact, Donovan Skirvin, the designer behind a line of locally handmade, custom shoes called Ese Carnal, is pretty much the only game in […]

It can happen to you. Yes, you. Oh, and you over there with the cynical outlook and quite a few notches on your bedpost? Uh-huh, yeah, you too. And you wouldn’t be the first petulant young (or “mature,” as the case may be) thing to be swept off into—the horror!—matrimony. In fact a nod to […]

With the holidays over, the retail world is entering its slow period. New arrivals are coming into the stores at a mere trickle. The good news for shoppers, though, is that virtually every store is having a big sale. A casual jaunt down NW 23rd reveals a hefty sale at Elizabeth Street (635 NW 23rd), […]

Everyone and their mom already did their “best of” lists for 2006, but frankly, I think it’s the resolutions that are more important. Nonetheless, I do have a smattering of regrets whilst looking back upon the year in which Portlander Anna Cohen made the cover of Women’s Wear Daily, PDX launched its own official Portland […]

Hopefully, after spending all your dough on presents and nearing the brink of broke, you found a little green in your stocking. If you’re extra lucky, you’re reading this before Christmas and you’ve still got cash to spare (I hate you) for hunting down something new to wear to all those parties leading up to […]

The months are dark, the parties aplenty, and most people are waiting for their post-New Year’s Resolution figures to kick in before thinking seriously about what they’ll be wearing come spring. Not so down at Garment (4136 SE Hawthorne), where preparations are underway to reveal the spring lines of some 12 Northwest designers whose goods […]