Today would have been Fashion's Night Out—a global retail event meant to help drum up support for retailers in the wake of the economic face plant—but earlier this year founders Anna Wintour and Co. announced, basically, "mission accomplished," and pulled the plug. Which is no reason not to do our own thing, and Portland has. They're calling it Fall into Fashion now, but all else is the same: Free pedicab rides to participating stores, a fashion show featuring looks from downtown apparel retailers running every half hour at Director Park from 5:30-7:30 pm, and various sales and parties going into the late evening at shops all over downtown.

It's also Day 1 in a series of runway shows going through the week, with the under-new-management Portland Fashion Week (not FashionXT, that's next month. Round two.) picking up the baton tomorrow through Saturday. As an untested event, PFW has its work cut out competing with TBA, and despite the involvement of some great up and coming designers (Rachel Rector, Sunjin Lee, Brady Lange) I'm hesitant to recommend it as a production sight unseen. However, one thing I can recommend is our coverage of the shows here and on Twitter—we'll be there every night, and we are feeling particularly honest lately.

Shrouded in dark mystery.