Skip to main contentTwo stores, two neighborhoods, two radically different approaches, but the owners of Uniform and The Dandy Lyon have plenty in common: Both are new-to-you stores fueled on optimism and sweat.
Forget mainstream marketability--these shops showcase their owners' idiosyncratic sense of design. It's an "if-we-build-it-they-will-come" approach to fashion--necessary in a town that, however receptive to new ideas, needs to be first notified, second courted, and third spanked and nagged.
Jessica Rogers and Leeanne McManus' Uniform, which opened on a Southeast Stark Street block shared by Rose's Boulangerie and Thai Thai II, began with a strong vision: Make cross-functional clothing that is indestructibly stylish for the 9 to 5'er and the street scrapper heading to a punk show at Satyricon. "We asked ourselves, 'What's really missing out there?'" says McManus. Although brands like Dickies and Carhartt produce workaday clothing with a rock-and-roll reputation, McManus and Rogers were going for something with more style points. The result is a line--shift tunics, bags, cloches and camp shorts--cut from husky, double-stitched utility canvas and reinforced with snaps, grommets and brass fittings.
"We're going for basic, modern items for everyday use," McManus explains.
The look is decidedly don't-mess: Until they come up with something they like better, they're calling it "clothing that works." When they say "work," think midcentury Mao. The store is a street-facing office carved out of artists' workspace and christened the "Collaboratory." It's a warren of crafters who engage in pursuits ranging from welding to jewelrymaking to woodworking on the premises. The space's managing tenant, Ken Miller, had plans to make the Uniform storefront a sanding room. With only one window facing the street, it would be unappealing to less imaginative entrepreneurs.
"But it was exactly what we wanted," says McManus.
The space has an institutional, bare-meets-bleak aesthetic, like the interrogation room in a decommissioned KGB outpost. Wan fluorescent lighting and gun-metal office furniture offset the racks of clothing in no-nonsense neutrals like black and khaki. Although they plan to feature the work of other designers, for now the focus is on producing and promoting the Uniform house label. As McManus put it, "We want to get our own asses nailed to the ground first."
Cut to NoPo's expanding Alberta Arts District, where the vibe is mellower and the Five-Year Plan is faint in memory. The Dandy Lyon has made its den on Northeast Alberta Street next to the Star E. Rose Cafe. (On sunny days, you might find one of the proprietors taking his lunch at the cafe's outdoor tables.) Co-owned by Zephyr, Blest and Yahroe, The Dandy Lyon was founded as an outlet for (I'm quoting them here) "post-apocalyptic intergalactic ethno-chic." Need a translation? Maybe this isn't your store.
Then again, maybe it could be the store you never knew you needed. What you'll find there: Yahroe's tailored hard/soft looks made from recycled bridal lace and bondage tidbits, Phoebe Durland's imported Indian silk tunics and pants, jewelry from Space Fairies, Faith Jennings and Anne Medland, and a flexible inventory of vintage and handmade items. "Right now, we're selling whatever catches our fancy," says Zephyr, and one gets the feeling things won't get much more structured than that. The DL also plans to participate in Alberta's feistier-by-the-month Last Thursday shenanigans, with some as yet undisclosed events. Hints of the hijinks to come were present at the store's end-of-July grand opening--a nude beauty in the store window dispensed sangria to passers-by from the bathtub in which she was soaking.
Clearly, both of these new haunts cater to a niche, a tight band of followers which may already exist. The proprietors of the Dandy Lyon and Uniform are poised to take your business on a see-what-happens basis. And if styles as specific as utility-chic or as whimsical as apocalyptic-etceteras can take hold anywhere, why not here? Portland's good at whipping up subcultures out of whole cloth and holding on tight--Goth is still here!
1421 SE Stark St., 234-0343 Store hours: Thursday-Saturday noon-7 pm, Sun noon-5 pm
2413 NE Alberta St., 493-1100,
WWeek 2015