Skip to main contentThe sweet balm of spring is in the air, and fashion's tender shoots are springing from the soil with the glitter-eyed optimism of preteen models. That's right, great gobs of designers, makeup artists, musicians, models and muscles-who-move-heavy-things have been cultivating a fresh crop of shows just for y-o-u, so tune in and hop on.
Who's been scrawling on your social calendar? Anna Blossom for one, a Portland native who partially financed her fashion studies at NYC's Fashion Institute of Technology with a Fashion Group International scholarship (kiss kiss, Portland chapter). She knocked hairdos with Wacky Willy's employee Georgia Lee Hussey to put together a nine-designer surplus store show at the end of March studded with collaborators--jewelry by Jennifer Kapnek, Raven Jewelry and Anne Miller for Xeno Glass, makeup by MAC and hair by Tonic. The runway? A line of metal desks. The backdrop? A silver tarp. The audience? Standing room only (well, there weren't any chairs), amid giant bins of screws and stickers and circuit boards--some of which provided the raw materials for the night's designs.
Why the odd venue? "We want to make art as accessible as possible," says Blossom, "and Wacky Willy's already plays a big role in Portland's creativity" (where do you think local art freaks get their hardware, detritus, and collage fixins?). The free show was a schizophrenic mix of retail-friendly creations from designers like Anna Italia (Blossom's line), Jayme Hansen and Linea and one-of-a-kind wearable performances from Devin Harkness, Jacks and Anti-Domestic. If "accessibility" to the night's designs was impeded by the mammoth store racks, the hundred or so spectators cheerfully endured the inconvenience.
Woe unto those who missed the Wacky Willy's show, but another fashion fling shines on April's horizon. Jennifer Foust, of Narcissia Dial, has spearheaded a four-designer showcase, called "Bal du Printemps," to be held at the Viscount Ballroom April 7. The designers: Foust herself; those omnipresent Seaplane girls, Kate Towers and Holly Stalder; and yours truly (as soon as I finish this column, I'm pedaling home to baste some collars). In addition to the 10 to 20 ensembles each designer will flaunt in that fashiony runway format, 20 white dresses provided by the designers have been placed in artists' hands to be restitched, detached, silkscreened, dyed or distressed at their whim. These eminently unwearable frocks will be displayed and hawked in a silent auction.
Why bid? It's a benefit, bunny. Insider-outsider arts organization Portland Institute for Contemporary Art will receive proceeds from ticket sales and the auction. If it seems weird for one struggling art gang to be raising money for another, that's the beauty (or the perversity) of Portland fashion in bloom. Girl can't be all goal-oriented about sketching a scene into being.
"Every time I do a show, the energy I put into it comes back to me," says Foust. "It doesn't necessarily come back financially, but name recognition, familiarity--these are what keep my designs in circulation." Foust plans to sell her designs, all of which are made from sheets and blankets, for li'l baby prices at the event. "I want to show that this whole thing can and should be fun."
Who doesn't like fun? Maybe Portland's fashion boomlet is just a collective hallucination, but collectives are very hot right now.
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WWeek 2015