NaturevsFuture. photo: Minh Tran
If any of us had any doubts about the location for Portland Fashion Week (like where it was, for example, especially when we made wrong turn and ended up at the Overlook thinking, we’re supposed to be down there somewhere, but how do we get there?), they were erased just past the guard booth as we entered the shipyard. It’s a shipyard! It’s a forest of cranes lit golden against the dark sky, monstrous warehouses and ships lurking off to the side. For those who have few occasions to head out to Portland’s connection to the oceangoing world of commerce, its a weird wonderland.
Sofada. photo: Minh Tran
A healthy crowd made its way out to night one of Portland Fashion Week last night, many of whom came quite early not knowing when the show actually started. The shows start at 8 (-ish) for the record.
The bookends of the show were New York’s NaturevsFuture and Portland’s Sofada, offering two distinct choices for spring dressing, a deconstructed, chic, downtown collection, and a socialite-at-the-Hamptons collection of print cotton dresses (and pants, shorts…).
NaturevsFuture. photo: Minh Tran
NaturevsFuture. photo: Minh Tran
We love the self-conscious off-kilterness of NaturevsFuture: diagonal seams and closures on shirtdresses and assymetrical hems, little details like the banded cap-sleeves and button-grouping. It’s a super smart look that’s brilliantly lowercase. The strongest group was neutral colored light cotton and linen shirtdresses, shifts, and empire waists, a couple with the assymetric hems of bright underskirts peeking out from beneath. There were jersey dresses with diagonally seamed bodices and decorative shirring flourishes (also some nifty short pants shirred partway up the back of the leg). The best dress of the night was NaturevsFuture’s little black dress diagonally slashed.
NaturevsFuture. photo: Minh Tran
Oddly, even NaturevsFuture showed a couple of shiny looks that presaged the un-springlike thread of shininess—silk taffetas, (and the like) that spoke more of holiday parties than spring in the park—that we saw throughout the evening.
Saffrona. photo: Minh Tran
mewv’s designer Sarabeth Chambers showed a collection of painted-on jersey tube and tank dresses, the most interesting of which was a floorlength tank that unlike its sister dresses had a little breathing room (at least at the hem). For her Saffrona line of occasion dresses, Chambers mainly cut sari fabric into party dresses sometimes wholesale, and sometimes as minor element like an underskirt showing two or three inches of its ornate hem. Rivaling NaturevsFuture’s LBD for showstopper (of a different flavor, admittedly) was her floorlength white halter dress with its full skirt and sashed waist.
amai unmei. photo: Minh Tran
amai unmei also turned to a vibrant Indian subcontinental palette for occasion dresses, gold, orange chiffon, shiny silks. And while her fit and flare coats in raw silk pastels with oversized peter pan collars and wide swingy sleeves almost felt as though they were from a different collection, they were among the more talked-about (read wearable yet fun for non-model-sized women) garments of the evening.
Olivia Luca. photo: Minh Tran
The best bit about seeing wedding dress after wedding dress coming down the runway for Olivia Luca’s segment of the show was seeing her exquisite fabric’s up close, the hemp silk with its sheen yes, but also a bit of woven texture, is especially modern alternative to the standard charmeuse, say. The wedding dress appeals to only a certain few in active dress search mode (and the future brides), but Olivia Luca made a strong case for the modern, unfussy (and primarily unembellished but for some lace details) wedding gown.
Sofada. photo: Minh Tran
Sofada. photo: Minh Tran
Alice Dobson for Sofada sent out a trademark light, pretty collection of clothes most of which truly brought a sense of spring-is-in-the-air to the runway with their floral palette, airy shapes and cotton prints (our favorite were short shirt dresses, one swingy in red and white) The extraordinary range of pieces that she offers is overwhelming in the context of the shows we’re used to in Portland, with a dozen or two pieces being standard. She hits every base from a sexy low-slung caramel trouser (delicious) to sweet blouses, short shorts to almost dowdy-length skirts, and new-to-our-eyes sensational knit tops, vests, and great off-the-shoulder ribbed sweaters. And that’s not the half of it. These are wardrobe builders, classics, for a certain feminine sensibility.
Note: Sidlab’s hair was perfect for night one: pretty, not overwhelming-fashion show hair with slightly undone pinned up-do’s (messy enough not to be too fussy), languid curls.
–Radon
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