Thrive

What it takes and will take to keep fashion thriving in PDX...

Genevieve Dellinger at FIX Gallery. photo Don Jones.

What does it take to make a thriving fashion scene in a city, particularly when it is not a first tier, not a second tier city, but our beloved Portland? While New York, Paris, and Milan have long been fashion centers, viewed as leaders with the creme-de-la-creme in every sector of the industry, second-tier cities like Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, and London have thriving fashion weeks and fashion scenes that nurture up-and-comers and attract international editorial attention.

Let's take stock. We have inventive designers on par with any you'll find in the centers. These are designers who are choosing to remain here and make their stand, like Adam Arnold, or choosing to return here from afar, like Anna Cohen coming back to Portland from Italy. And these designers, like Genevieve Dellinger and Bonnie Heart Clyde, are supported by adventurous retailers who stock either exclusively local designers, like Seaplane and FIX Gallery, or a mix, like YES, Moxie, or Local.35. And these retailers are keeping their doors open, indicating that there are adventurous buyers who are willing to throw down for locally-made few-of-a-kind goods.

The adventurous buyer is the key. Because as much as it's exciting to see a sold-out crowd at a fashion show, if the garments aren't purchased by a store buyer and purchased again by a savvy and stylish consumer, the fashion show is a moment of theater or a moving art show and that's not enough to financially sustain either a designer or a fashion economy.

[Kathryn Towers at Seaplane.]

[Anna Cohen. photo by Tim Gunther.]
So as much as we might bemoan the passing of catalytic entities like the PDX Fashion Incubator, as much as we might wonder where the city money to support the Creative Economy evaporated to (considering that cities like London PUMP money into the industry...and to good press and good result--riddle me this: how many heads of major European houses are British? how many graduated from Central St. Martins? how many of you knew what I was talking about when I said "Central St. Martins?"), and as much as we might be grateful for the forces that continue to produce myriad amazing garments and highly visible fashion shows (including our trade school, the Art Institute), the bottom line is that if there is not a common aesthetic that we share that pushes us to either customize thrifted garments if we are poor and capable or buy the remarkable and idiosyncratic and singular designs of talented local designers if we are able, we might as well forget about the health of the fashion economy (and individual style) in Portland.

We're lucky to have the avant- cadre of those who don't need to get their style-tickets punched by an internationally-recognized label, but are confident enough and PDX-proud enough to wear a local label. They are supporting local artists (as well as the entire fashion economy including photographers, make-up artists, and shop girls) as surely as those who buy visual art. And they look fabulous doing it.

And with the PDX fashion community at a critical mass point it deserves not only boosterism, but critical conversation.

Posted by lisa on Wednesday August 10 2005 23:21 www.ultrapdx.com