Get a Room

For all the make-nice insistence to the contrary, there is a
distinct lack of unity in Portland’s fashion industry. What stands as
the official Portland Fashion Week is a hit-and-miss affair
that—but for a few notable highlights—includes almost none
of the apparel and accessory designs that people entrenched in
Portland’s independent arts scene get truly excited about. Don’t blame
the fashion week organizers, who’ve put in a tremendous amount of
energy to try to recruit Portland’s best talents to the runway. (This
year’s fashion week had more designers than ever from out of town,
suggesting that its evolutionary course is set more toward an
international show of vaguely green-minded designers rather than a
platform from which to broadcast regional talent.)

You can’t wholly blame the absent designers either, who are not only
faced with high participation fees (on top of the costs of producing
their lines in the first place), and debatable returns. Moreover, many
of them have chosen to design in Portland in the first place out of a
desire to do things their own way and avoid the rank-and-file
procedures of “making it” in LA or New York. The result—more
pronounced than ever this season—is a series of events, roughly
spanning a month, that with very little overlap do cumulatively
paint a picture of the industry’s range.

The situation doesn’t make it easy on any out-of-town press whose
recession-budgeted publications might be brave enough to head them out
west to see what the fuss is about. Portland Fashion Week has probably
been the most successful in drumming up outside press interest in the
region’s design scene, but it would take any visitor more
investigation, motivation, and time than is probably required of them
to file their copy back home in order to peel back the layers and make
it to all the cool-kid off-the-grid parties and fashion shows. There
will always be some who are content to keep it that way—being
underground has its advantages—but this year a new contender is
stepping onto the event calendar, aiming high and reaching out to grab
the attention of… well, ultimately, the world.

Content ’09 makes its debut this week, its intentions to become an
annual event made clear by the immediate “’09” distinction in the
title. Eschewing the traditional runway mode of presentation, the
organizers—Gretchen Jones, Anna Korte, and Ada Mayer, who
together make up the fledgling How We Develop (HWD) designer
collective, blog (howwedevelop.com), and event production
team—have chosen a multimedia blitz of fashion installation, art,
and music. For one night only, the entire second floor of the Ace Hotel
will have all of its 28 rooms occupied by some of Portland’s most
exciting designers of apparel and accessories. Much like artists at the
now-defunct Affair at the Jupiter Hotel event, Content’s design
participants are being allowed (barring permanent alteration and a
limit of up to three live models) to decorate their rooms however they
see fit, using them as microcosmic environments that communicate their
brand identity and inspirations of the moment.

Asked about the event’s rather austere name, HWD’s collective
response is that, “[Content] allows the event to be defined by what is
created within.” Sure enough, but it’s also a reminder of the sheer
amount of talent involved. The list of participating designers is as
long as it is exciting: Pinkham Millinery, Duchess Clothier, Holly
Stalder, Lindsey Reif, Sword + Fern, Smith & Bybee, Genevieve
Dellinger, Liza Rietz, the Portland Garment Factory, Dawn Sharp, Jayme
Hansen, John Blasioli, Isaac Hers, Sarah Seven, Janeane Marie, Andy
Lifschutz, Heather Treadway, Elizabeth Dye, Gatsby, Bridge & Burn,
Moonwoods, Hazel Cox, Claire La Faye, Emily Katz, Idom, Adam Arnold,
Stone & Honey, Linea, Dust, Tanner Goods, Luxury Jones, church
& state, Erhart, plus Korte and Mayer’s collaborative Im:mortal,
Anna Korte’s AK Vintage, and Gretchen Jones’ MothLove.

It’s a roster that includes some of the people who originally
brought the words “fashion” and “Portland” together in a non-pejorative
way (Pinkham, Stalder, Dye, Arnold) as well as lines that have been
barely seen or are making their debut (Smith & Bybee, Andy
Lifschutz, Bridge & Burn, Stone & Honey, Im:mortal). The
inclusion of a small production house (the Portland Garment Factory)
also underscores an atmosphere where start-to-finish locality is a
priority. Within Content, at least, there is unity insofar as the group
show is an expression of a mutually beneficial support system. “We want
to have a hand in creating the industry we want to work within…” the
HWD collective confirms. “Exposing ourselves and fellow designers to a
wider and diverse audience will create a beneficial environment
necessary to support the commerce we all need to thrive.”

To that end HWD has been putting in its own efforts to make Content
an event of interest outside the city limits, and the organization’s
language is frank in referring to the project as a way to communicate
brand identity as well as an artistic endeavor. It’s less about
offering Portland up to the fashion industry in as recognizable a form
as possible—as Portland Fashion Week achieves in its high-gloss
presentation—than it is representing it with an emphasis on its
quirky symbiosis with the unconventional and its cheek-to-cheek
relationship with the independent music and art scene. “We all ‘benefit
through association,'” HWD explains, “which is an integral element to
our growth as a culture.”

Acts like Dirty Mittens, Nucular Aminals, Guidance Counselor, Blue
Horns, DJ Dr. Adam, and Ezra Carey will perform at the event, and
visual installations by Minh Tran, Justin Gorman, Seth Neefus, Sam
Korman, and Modou Dieng will transform the space through everything
from video to sculptural means.

As to the rooms themselves, designers are taking a variety of
approaches, some directly addressing the hotel atmosphere itself, such
as Adam Arnold, who says, “I have pulled my inspiration from my
affinity for dressing up while on vacation. The collection will
focus on what it means to sojourn for me, in terms of staying in
foreign places and getting to know the city that I am visiting. The
environment won’t be altered too much from that which the Ace Hotel has
spent so much time designing, but will create a sort of visual
vignette, with a focus on the kinds of things that are fascinating to
me about staying in hotels.”

Others, like Lindsey Reif, Jessica Beebe of Linea, and Nichole
Eatman of Luxury Jones, are jumping all-in with multimedia approaches
that incorporate original films and sound installations, while
artist/designers like Julia Blackburn of Dust promise to dichotomize
the modern design of the rooms with earthy elements like “rocks and
sticks and bones.” Simple intentions to present work coincide with
expansive messages, like the one by Emily Baker of Sword + Fern, who
says she is “using the Content platform to explore and reflect on the
principles of feminism, and how I can translate them into my business
tangibly and promote feminism as a female designer within a vapid and
commercial fashion world,” as well as addressing queer politics and
protestation against NASA’s bombing of the moon. Meanwhile, jewelry and
accessories designer Hazel Cox promises that, “At the Content show, I
will be performing a ritual.”

Although Content 09’s intentions to draw together the creative
capability of its community into a more powerful whole are legitimate,
what promises to make it fun for the audience is its utter lack of
cohesion: Attendees should expect a wide range of ideas and
personalities expressed in a funhouse of art and costume that is as
diverse as it is unique, storied, and inspired. Content hasn’t
hesitated to include designers whose paths are nontraditional within
the garment industry, prioritizing artistic vision and offering its
platform to designers at no cost for participation. Those elements set
the stage for a truly authentic celebration of Portland’s
much-ballyhooed independent aesthetic, while retaining a curative
control that prevents its descent into chaos. If Portland Fashion Week
hasn’t quite made it work yet for a stubborn, rebellious Portland,
Content might just become the unifying alternative we’ve been waiting
for.