PORTLAND!

Dudes, lots has changed in the past few weeks! As I mentioned, I left England. It was sad, but what can you do... I am looking forward to new things and pursuing a real job instead of, say, working in a crap pub for 5.75 an hour cash in hand. I actually got a couple of job offers in England before they learned that I was only on a tourist visa. Damn, why do I always have to be so honest with people?

It was good to get back to the states in time to go to Automne and Graham's wedding in Portland. I don't really know these kids too well, but Automne and I had been corresponding via emails and blogs and what not so I felt like I knew what I could expect from them. I'd never been to Portland before but it also lived up to expectations: lots of vegan fixed gear kids, lots of bums/homeless people, lots of vegan/hippy shit, but... LOTS of amazing vintage shopping. As Elizabeth put it, it is ENDLESS and AMAZING.

First, the wedding... Automne's dress was OOC (out of control) radness, it was a purple, floor length number that she customized with tons of fabric flowers. And she wore matching pink and purple chiffon veil. They made a ZINE complete with mixed CD (which, sadly, I think I left in my hotel, ARGHHH!) and they even did a blog with profiles of all the wedding guests. The actual ceremony was the best part, I think... very informal and sweet and they wrote their own vows. They even had a "wedding manifesto." It ruled. I won't post my photos cause theirs are better but be sure to check it out.

The rest of the trip we spent riding bikes and vintage shopping. There were, fortunately, a good number of stores near our hotel which is where I made my purchases. First up, and best really, was Bombshell Vintage. There was a great selection of midcentury stuff, it was on the expensive side for Portland but cheap for someone coming from London and New York. I bought a 40's black silk dress and a 50's Lorrie Deb chiffon dress that I ended up wearing to the wedding. Came in at under $100, not bad.

Next up down the block was a shop called Zeno Oddities, which was an odd assortment of records, vintage, and other, well, "oddities." The guy who ran this shop was obviously much more interested in the records, but there was a nice, very small assortment of vintage, including a 40's dress that I picked up for $30 (score!). He gave me $2 off because a button fell off, pays to be a seamstress.

Further along Burnside was Hattie's Vintage. This was by and large the most expensive of the vintage shops we hit, but they had a nice selection.

I tried on a couple of 30's dresses including this black bias-cut number (very Madeleine Vionnet!)... I still can't get the hang of a long hem though so I left it there, even though it was really cool. Plus I'd already spend over $100.

The last store on this stretch was one called Rock and Rose. It was pretty mediocre, lots of vintage tees and stuff of that nature. Ana found some stuff though for cheap. I still have a hard time accepting that 90's stuff can be called "vintage" now.

The next day we ventured over to the Hawthorne District, which reminded me a lot of Telegraph Ave. in my hometown, Berkeley, CA, and lived up to a lot of Portland stereotypes. Behold:

I died a little inside. Aaaanyways, there were outlets of Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads (both in Berkeley as well) around here which we skipped but we did check out Red Light, which we were told was Portland's answer to Beacon's Closet. There was lots to look through here, also lots of crap and clothes from a few years ago. I had my eye out for things I could re-sell since I'd already spent my clothing budget for myself the day prior... I found an Emma Domb 50's dress for $20 and a couple of other things but determined that they were not really saleable so left them all behind... I'm still thinking about them days later and wondering if I made a mistake. Oh well, you never know!

Monday Ana and I went for a bike ride with rented bikes from the hotel. We rode for about 2 hours along the river.

On Tuesday I checked out Fringe Vintage, which was cute but not really worth writing home about. Not enough mid century. Nice merchandising, though. After that I met up with Elizabeth and we had tacos. She was being shy for some reason.

Then it was off to California, they put me on the smallest plane ever and it was super claustrophobic.

You could see Mt. St. Helens.