Portland Fashion Week, Day 1

For three days last week, the new incarnation of Portland Fashion Week had its inaugural run at the Convention Center-if you want the inside baseball on how PFW and FashioNXT came to co-exist, I laid it all out back in January. Despite the rumors that trickled down to me-pissed off models, dropped looks, grumpy sponsors, general chaos and drama-from the front of the house, at least, the event did not fail. The setup was polished, and there were some interesting participants in the pop-up shop area, no models fell on the runway (though at least one audience member did), and turnout was decent if not packed.

My ongoing question with all of this has been whether or not there was any justification for Portland to have what are essentially two fashion weeks within two months of each other. One of the best answers to that, I think, is that due to budget snips, the Art Institute is no longer planning to host its big annual graduate fashion show-which is awful. Instead they found an alternative at PFW, which did not even charge its participants a fee. I love student shows (and the smell of fresh blood), and the students deserve to show off their senior collections, so for that, at least, PFW has done good.

There certainly was a lot going on at the first night of the shows. A mix of current and past Ai students' work took the stage, as well as three 'emerging designers' and two boutiques. Because of timing there were only two actual senior collections, but Ai clearly dominated the evening both in terms of representation and the fact that at nearly two hours the show literally dominated one's evening! Ai graduate shows are typically pretty long due to the number of students showing, but with five 'acts' making up the long set, an intermission would not have been remiss. To my own horror I had to slip out as quickly as I could between sets when my bladder started to prevent me from concentrating on what I was looking at, but the people who got up just to go get drinks? Rude.

The opening act started with emerging designers Briana Jacobs (also a current Ai student), Karen Davis, and Rachel Rector. Jacobs' colorblocked pinks and blues were youthful and flirty, though I preferred the airier teal and whites.

Lingerie designer Rachel Rector's colorblocked sheer lingerie was somewhat reminiscent of famously colorblocked VPL, but maybe a bit more naked. With bodysuits and slips mixed in with bras and briefs, there were a ton of interesting possibilities for layering, none of which I'd kick out of bed.