Monday, October 22, 2007

Portland - It is More Than Just Sales Tax Free Shopping

Tarah, Regina, and I headed to Portland this past weekend for Portland Fashion Week. I will follow up with a review of that in a later blog however I wanted to comment on some of the great boutique shopping Portland has to offer. On Saturday, we started out Downtown at your traditional shopping stores. I had not brought enough clothes and in my pregnant state needed to get some maternity items. After that (in the rain no less), we headed up to NW 23rd (walking).
The street is very cute and neighborhood like. Our initial mission was to get to the Sameunderneath Warehouse Clearance Sale. We each found some great items. From there we found Souchi. The items are beautiful. The owner hand looms the items in her line as well as she carries a few other designers. We talked with one of the sales people, who was very helpful and informative about other stores to check out on the street. She referred us to SeaPlane. The store carries local designer wares. There was quite a selection especially when you see the size of the store. If only I wasn't pregnant, I would instead have come back from Portland extremely poor. Regina and I checked out the Sameunderneath retail store. They have a cashmere hoody dress that I am so in love with and really want. Maybe at the end of the season since I want it as a post pregnancy item.
On Sunday, we decided to check out the Pearl District. Regina had lived in Portland about 10 years ago and said the Pearl District was definitely a lot nicer now that it was then. We roamed what seemed like the entire district. My favorite store was Bubble. The items are all from European designers. The store owner was very knowledgeable about the items that she carried. A place to check out when down south. We also had some great cupcakes from Jones Cupcakes. Tried to check out Michelle Decourcey but her store was closed due to her Spring line being shown at PFW later than night.
The trip was great. I think that in the spring after the unborn one is a little older I will have to make another trek south. This time it will be for the purchases. We are hoping to launch a Portland portion to our site sometime in 2008. We found out this weekend that there is a lot of leg work involved as they have a lot of great places and designers.

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