portlandia

one super excellent thing about living in a west coast city is, well....

the proximity to other west coast cities!

i took advantage of this uh... advantage on wednesday, and did a quick trip to portland.

the excuse for the trip was for me to attend the northwest footwear materials show, which was an interesting chance for me to get to look at a lot of the materials that athletic shoes are made of. (being a fashion-oriented designer myself, some of these things were quite new to me. and quite inspiring!)

but, i also got to have some fun. not the least of which was running into a friend from high school (!) completely randomly. 

what luck!

the weather was characteristically rainy, so i decided against trying to shoot any street style photos. it's hard to get people to stop on the street to pose in a downpour. (and you know what? i don't really want to stop to shoot them!)

but that doesn't mean that i was not paying attention to portland style. and i do have something fun on which to report....

the portland black lipstick company makes lipsticks in a range of colors that are not typically easy to find:

turquoise, green, metallic blue, purple, silver, gold, black, grey and brown are all of some choices.

they're all 100% natural, and i'm sort of obsessed with their hippie-chic design, which calls to mind an old favorite:

truth be told- i am not a huge fan of the idea of black or turquoise lips, i have tried these highly pigmented tubes as eye liner, and they are the perfect thing to create a greasy, smokey eye.

i brought home "coffee, black" (a very dark brown) and "indigo bridge" and am now channeling kate moss, circa her close call with arrest on cocaine charges.

it's not so shocking that a cheeky, hippie, goth product line like this would come from portland. as we all know the dream of the 90's in alive in portland....

and although it's awesome weather kept me from proving to you that all of your favorite subcultural styles live on this little city..... i did manage to shoot one photo of an adorable girl who made me a delicious soy latte...

i don't know if she's wearing portland black lipstick co's lippie here, but i sure would't be surprised if she were....

how cute is she!?

adorable. 

thanks for the fun day, pdx!

cargo

as you saw in yesterday's post, portland oregon is a great place to eat, drink and be merry.

it's also a great place to browse, and spend some money (but generally not too much).

one of the most visually appealing places to while a away some time while a rain shower passes is cargo. almost TEN years ago, i lived in portland, and worked at a shoe store that was on the same street as cargo's TINY original store.

i could not believe what it's blossomed into. see for yourself:

yes, all of the above is one store. in its giant industrial space, cargo manages to pack in treats for all ages and all budgets.

GO!

doug fir

i just got back from an almost two week long vacation in the pacific northwest of north america.

we had such a fun trip, saw good friends and met new ones!

our first stop was portland, oregon, which is one of my favorite cities. portland does great things with the design and use of the different retail stores, restaurants and public spaces, so i thought i'd share some photos....

(especially since the shop and restaurant owners don't seem to mind if you take pictures, like they do in nyc!)

the photos below are all of a place called doug fir / jupiter hotel. originally it was a cheap hotel, but has been re-worked to include hotel rooms, a full restaurant, a great music venue and a sprawling bar, lounge and patio space. i could literally hang out here all day!

this building is especially suited to one-stop-shopping in the evening, as you can see....

stay tuned for another amazing interior space in tomorrow's post!

the other warehouse sale

to distract myself from the mounting hurricane that *will not* be disrupting my vacation travel plans tomorrow morning, yesterday i went to the bird warehouse sale.

i am a devotee of the store, having moved into the carroll gardens neighborhood at approximately the same time the boutique did.

they do a bang-up job at buying for the whole dang place, but i have always had an affection for their shoe selection.....

however, i've been trying to reign in the spending this summer, so most of my visits have been for browsing, inspiration & window shopping only.

but of course i had my favorites...... and i set off the warehouse sale with cautious optimism that at least one of the two pair of shoes that i'd been coveting would be available....

although the twitterer at bird (bird tweets. obviously.) had mentioned that ladies had started lining up an hour before opening, i arrived at the twenty-minute countdown, and found no one there.

i'm not too impressed with um, exaggerating the truth in order to cajole people to come and stand outside in the rain for no reason at all.... but, like i said, i'm a devotee, so i didn't make too much of a fuss.

and i'm glad i didn't. once i got into the store, jen mankins and her lovely & friendly staff were excellent hosts, and steered me right toward the shoes.....

and the two pair that i'd been dreaming of:

the rachel comey leno

the dieppa restrepo dina

they will both be coming with me, my two pair of acne jeans, earnest sewn cut off jeans shorts, james linen pants, 10 t shirts & tank tops, gap denim button down, printed cotton button down shirt from layla, white peasant blouse, alc maroon jersey dress, two scarves, blazer, white converses and blue flat sandals from topshop on the....

plane to portland, which will be taking off from newark airport tomorrow at 7 am. 

after which time, hurricane irene can do what it likes with the new york tri state area.

yes, i'm already packed.

--- this post now concludes "shoe week". i hope you have enjoyed it as much as i have ---