After Portland Fashion Week last fall, many have wondered, What’s next? Portland Fashion Week roars back this spring not with runway shows, but with a couple of events previewing Fall/Winter 2008 collections by a number of local and sustainable designers and a showroom at the Better Living Show. First up, on March 27 at the Discovery Center at the South Waterfront (0680 SW Bancroft), Portland Fashion Week hosts a reception for 10 independent and green fashion designers from 8-11 PM:
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Lara Miller (Chicago)
Lizzie Parker (Seattle)
Izzy Lane (UK)
Alula
Blairwear
Amai Unmei
Lucia Apparel
According to Portland Fashion Week Executive Director, Tito Chowdhury, each designer will have a couple of pieces from their Fall/Winter 2008 collections on mannequins in a display designed by Art Institute students. There will be a silent auction bidding on the designers’ work benefiting the Children’s Cancer Association. Chowdhury says, “Winning bidders will get the pieces before they are on the market and each designer has agreed to custom fit the garment for the highest bidder.” The event is $30 in advance/$40 at the door. After the event, the display moves to the Better Living Show at the Portland Expo Center and the silent auction continues.
Then on March 29 from 5-8 PM at the Better Living Show, Portland Fashion Week hosts an Eco-Fashion Panel with an installation of work by Anna Cohen, Lizzie Parker and Nau. The panel is made up of representatives from those sustainable labels and Leslie Hoffman of Earthpledge, NY and Rebecca Luke, Sustainable Style Foundation, Seattle. “We wanted to focus on discussion of sustainability in fashion, but decided to add an installation to show the work,” says Chowdhury. Again there is not a runway show, but here pieces from the fall collections by Nau, Parker, and Cohen will be on live models. Admission to the Better Living Show, a massive expo of green and sustainable living is free.
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