design Lara Miller at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
It’s been so interesting every night to see the different audiences that show up for each night at Portland Fashion Week. Last night, from our vantage point, we saw a polished, well-heeled crowd whose evening looks may or may not have dovetailed with the aesthetic of the designers of the evening ranging from rhinestone studded sweaters to sleek ivory knit tunics over Siggerson Morrison boots.
design Izzy Lane at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Izzy Lane at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
Izzy Lane showed a number of ivory and grey cotton dresses with bubble hems formed by tiny pleats at the hem which in itself was interesting, but each was accented by strips of woven plaid wool, as belt (wide or narrow), covered buttons or collar accents. Wool plaid for spring? Yes, Izzy Lane is all about wool, an innovator in a vertically integrated apparel business, they own sheep! So the accents just serve as a reminder of what we’re talking about here, work that’s built by the company from the ground up. And the green of their sweaters, a paler grass in the finest knit, was lovely.
design Blairwear at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Blairwear at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
Glory be but Portland designer and teacher Sharon Blair knows how to cut a jacket! She sent out a number of imaginatively-cut jackets (with big shoulders) like the fog grey pinstripe suit coat with diagonal insets on the bodice, and a number of short jackets, with double lapels, with a pleated back and bracelet sleeves, just one good one after another. But she drew oohs and ahs from the audience with her grey satin trench which will probably be the Portland version of coat of the season. The one charcoal Blairwear draped jersey dress that we really liked (there were a number of them) featured an interesting (how’d they do that) twist-knotted front.
design Del Forte at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Del Forte at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Del Forte at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
Even the girls in the audience tonight who are not white denim girls have to almost wish they were with one look at Del Forte’s sharp white sky-high-waist jeans, fit through the thigh and then wider leg. Just such a crisp look. The dark denim looks were best, the high waist pencil skirt and cuffed short shorts were very good. There were several hippie looks like a pieced fishtail skirt that made us think of the old jeans-converted-to-a-long-skirt from the 70s, but with more imagination. What to wear with denim? An orange cotton swingy tank will do.
design Lara Miller at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Lara Miller at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Lara Miller at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
Lara Miller’s collection was the most fun of the evening. Many of her garments proved, at the end of the runway, to be convertible…as in the bandeau dress worn over a t-shirt that the model yanked down to her waist before walking her exit. Another bandeau became a halter, things were pulled up and down, until it got to be a guessing game…our favorite top with a split halter attached at the waist to a tube top was an invitation to un- and retying, but not all the garments had something else to be. Her light spring sweaters, besides the knockout black tunic with stripey cuffs, were in the colors of chocolate milk and mint. And their innovative construction, with open or tacked up backs, open sleeves suggesting kimono, and a very cozy cool summer evening at the coast sweater that wrapped and wrapped.
design Anna Cohen at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Anna Cohen at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
design Anna Cohen at Portland Fashion Week photo Pete Springer
Orange has reared its head a number of times this week. For spring, just so we all understand each other. For Anna Cohen orange was The color, coming in a variety of shades from eye-vibrating burnt orange through melon, pumpkin, and on to a pastel orange like if your orange ice cream pop melts and the popsicle outside mixes with the vanilla ice cream inside. This particular color graced a beautiful silk blouse with a double tie and puff sleeves worn tucked into a delicate high waist black silk skirt. And black and orange would team up again and again, most interestingly in a black linen long skirted coat with orange satin lapels. There were a number of typically sexy (low back, front or both) dresses in orange jersey as well, and a pair of high waist silk charmeuse wide leg pants worn with a Victorian feeling blouse (Studio 57 meets the Queen). Her high waist very fitted jeans in a vertical stripe (almost like mattress ticking) were of course excellent, because Cohen has been doing these kind of skinloving pants since she began.
–Lisa Radon
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