Return It: Sometimes Fashion Gives Back

[August 8th, 2001] More often than not fashion folk are castigated for the very things that make them so stylish: self-obsession, insularity and numbness to political and social issues.

Leave it to PDX to rub settled expectations the wrong way. For instance, both Donna & Toots' recent "Discover Local Art" and G-Spot's upcoming gala benefit "Dusk 'Til Dawn" prove that making art and having a heart are not mutually exclusive. Instead, young entrepreneurs, such as Portland designers Suzanne Kraft and Kwai Toa, are choosing to celebrate their craft for a cause.

"I worked a night job and spent my paychecks on school projects," says Kraft, who created Discover Local Art as a gesture toward delivering on the vow she made while she was a design-studies student at Philadelphia College of Textiles. "I lived off pretzels and hot chocolate during the final two weeks of the semester because I couldn't afford food. I made the promise then that I would continually support and encourage individuals' artistic endeavors, and also organizations that feed the hungry."

Thus arises Discover Local Art, a multiartist benefit for the Day Watch Hospitality and Food Box Ministry of the First Presbyterian Church and a grass-roots event in classic terms. Everyone that contributed did so on the presumption that those of creative bent form a natural community, regardless of medium, experience or price point. And judging from the wine being poured and intra-artist trades going on (skirt for painting, dress for necklace), that presumption was dead-on.

For one night, Kraft shared her shop, which nests in a snug storefront on Southwest Alder Street, with some 20 artists, artisans, jewelry makers and clothing designers, all of whom were given space to showcase their work in an open-house format. Kraft collected cans of food at the door and sold raffle tickets. Area merchants such as Bad Kitty Koffee and Josephine's Dry Goods donated snazzy prizes, including plump gift certificates. Artist John King contributed one of his paintings. As for the talent on display, the range of work included delicate, collage-based paintings by Sarah Landwehr, photo-image cards and matchbooks by Troy Klebey, beaded jewelry by Caryn Buchholz and clothing from a vital posse of local talent--Daniel McCall, Carolyn Jane McKay and Amelia Hendley, to name a few. All proceeds from art and clothing sales went directly back to the creators because, as Kraft explains, "most of the artists involved need the money to put back into their art."

Kwai Toa's "Dusk 'Til Dawn" benefit, which will hit the Classical Chinese Garden on Saturday, is similar in mission but more massive in magnitude. The event, which will feature a fashion show of Toa's G-Spot clothing modeled by dancers from Oregon Ballet Theatre, has been elaborately orchestrated as a soup-to-nuts set piece for the in crowd as well as the arts supporter. At $50 a pop, the show will benefit "Arts Alive--Students Creating Solutions for Their Schools," a student-led organization that raises funds and awareness for arts education in Portland Public Schools. More specifically, Arts Alive cash compensates for financial cuts made to school arts programs (music, theater, dance, fine art--you name it).

Producing Dusk 'Til Dawn has been a test of will and skill for Toa. "I woke up one morning and knew I wanted to have a fashion show with ballet dancers," she says. "And I wanted it to be a fundraiser." Quickly, she struck agreements with both the Garden and OBT--and wrote a big deposit check.

That got the ball rolling, as only money can do. "The best way to get things like this done is to leave yourself no choice," laughs Toa.

Toa and her assistant Phoebe Wilson have handled it all: promotion, sponsorship, planning, even the specially designed T-shirts available at hipster havens like Poker Face and The Showroom. More than just a fashion show, the event will sprawl into Sunday morning with an after-show party at Paragon Restaurant and Bar and a trunk show all day Sunday at Coreen Salome.

When asked whether fashion designers have an obligation to give back to the community, Toa is emphatic: "I think everyone has an obligation to give back to the community, and this is the way I am best able to do it."

All you stylish layabouts out there, take notice. We have fashionable arts angels in our midst.