Today starts the bi-annual vintage sale at OFFICE PDX (2204 NE Alberta). Spruce up your work space at home or in the office with a vintage Remington typewriter, desks, globes, and storage containers from bygone eras. It’ll give the décor great personality and make you a happier worker bee. Sale runs through Sunday.

In my most recent column, I made mention of Spa Week, taking place September 17-23. During this week, participating salons are offering $50 treatments that are normally priced much higher. If salon pampering isn’t exactly budgeted into your life, this is a great excuse to treat yourself. Today the final lineup of participating spas, as well as the treatments offered were supposed to be listed on Spa Week’s web site, although you have to sign up as a member to delve behind the curtains, which I did. They do have a list of participating salons: Salon Nyla (327 SW Pine), Spa Sassé (630 SW Alder), The Dragontree (2768 NW Thurman), and—if you’re not allergic to the suburbs—Massage on the Go (8879 SW Center in Tigard). They do not, however, have the treatments listed, and phone calls to the Portland spas have so far yielded only the information on Salon Nyla, who will be offering:

• A Botanical Skin Resurfacing Treatment, which normally goes for $90
• A haircut and makeup application—a standard woman’s haircut is normally $45, and a makeup application is usually $30
• A Rosemary Mint Body Wrap, normally $75

I’m awaiting phone calls from Spa Sassé and The Dragontree with their lists, so check back for updates. In the meantime, start booking your appointments. These go fast. (Nyla’s #: 228-0389) It’s a good sign that the people answering the phones don’t know off the bat what the Spa Week services are—yet!

Smearing goo on yourself = good times

UPDATE!:

Spa Sassé just called me back with their list of treatments:

• A facial OR an hour-long massage (facial is normally $85, hour massage $75)

• A small area laser treatment OR small tattoo removal (normally $90 and—wow—$250, respectively)

• An ultimate spa pedicure OR a choclatte pedicure (both normally $90—the choclatte one involves chocolate scented products, hot chocolate, truffles, and wine and champagne)

Check out this awesome article about people using old-timey cassette tapes to make new, fashionistic clothing and accessories (including Transformer toys). Here’s a sneaky peek…

The Cassette Belt

The Cassette Dress (made from the tape inside the cassette)

And of course, the Cassette Wallet

HEY!! DID YOU STEAL THAT MADONNA CASSETTE OUT OF MY TOYOTA COROLLA??

As many of you know, Portland Fashion Week is happening again this year, and its organizers are making a concerted effort to have it grab the attention of the national and international press, eventually making it an annual mecca for designers working within a sustainable/ethical model to show their work. Local designers who aren’t specifically working with a sustainable focus are also encouraged to audition for the show (buying locally being an arguably sustainable act itself). So far, the week has been written up by Book Moda, an international trade publication covering runways around the world. Each issue costs something like $80+, but it’s quite the souvenier, and should be hitting the world’s streets in the next couple weeks. They will be covering the event as, apparently, will WWD, and hopefully many more memebers of the press. I’m on the advisory committee this year, and also part of the selection commitee along with designer Anna Cohen and other local buyers and editors.

This Friday, from 5-9 pm, Mabel & Zora (1468 NE Alberta) is putting all of their summer merchandise on sale at 20-50% off. Plus, check out new arrivals from Fall including Kersh, 525, Tulle, Beau Bois, SweetPea, and French Connection.

In addition to the earlier noted S/S shows happening in Copenhagen, Cape Town is also having its fashion week—a proposition that, for the most part, sounds more interesting than it looks. Cities outside the main capitals of the industry seem understandably less interested in taking risks, and the global world of fashion is less expectant that they be taking things in any strong direction. Which sucks, really. This internationalizing seems like it’s making everything more homogenous, rather than letting each country/community incubate its own distinctiveness. Then again, count me as thrilled that I can peruse every look from every fashion week around the globe. I’m not a designer, after all, but if I were I think I’d refrain from peeking at the shows, for the most part, and see what my own brain came up with without any subliminal (or not so) influences. Originality is poised as a particularly important quality these days, with designers letting their lawyers loose on places like Forever 21 for producing copies of their designs, and lobbying for copyright protections. (What a can of worms deciphering what constitutes a copy… hmm, a classic camel trench? A black top? Who owns the rights to those?) And actually, if designers press the issue, then it would stand to reason that they would need to defend the originality of their own designs, too. Perhaps that would eradicate $700 price tags on items like tank tops that are deemed valuable simply because of the name on the tag. I mean, could Hanes or whoever then sue a big design house for including a wife beater in their collection? It’s an interesting discussion, and one that runs through my head every time I’m looking through the reams of fashion week photos looking for things that really grab me. Here are a couple from Cape Town that I like, but you should check them out for yourself.

(Kluk CGDT)

(Kobus Dippenaar Atelier)

Ummm… check out the newest cover for Allure that purports to have Britney Spears on its cover. I don’t know about you, but that looks like some weird Britney/Gina Gershon genetic experiment gone awry. Anyway, maybe it’s just a case of overzealous photoshopping, or maybe Britney heeded the mag’s lead article about obtaining “CLEAR, RADIANT SKIN: Erase Dullness, Dark Spots, Dry Patches.” And while you’re at it, could you also erase “Loneliness, Alcoholism, and Horrible Taste in Men”?

You have until the end of this month to hit the end-of-summer sale over at Pin Me (3705 N Mississippi), where you will find up to a whopping 50% off all clothing and bags.

(dress by Hype)

Thongs are a don’t, right? I mean, if I was so concerned with the line of my underwear showing I just wouldn’t wear any. Personally I don’t think they look hot, and kind of remind me of the ’80s when people would wear them over leggings to do aerobics and whatnot. I keep seeing them for sale in places I tend to respect, and yet I know almost nobody who cops to wearing them, especially ones that are of any quality. After all, if you just need a little coverage and avoidance of panty lines, why spend a lot on something you’re going to place right over where the sun don’t shine? Oh and you’re going to ride a bike in it, too? I just don’t get it.

(That said, if I were going to wear one, this demi-thong in sensible and organic gotton from Perfectly Imperfect might be a little closer to tolerable. Available at Greenloop.)

If you have a tendency to poop your pants upon hearing exciting news, DO NOT READ THIS POST! This urgent media alert just in: Sex and the City star SARAH JESSICA PARKER is coming to TIGARD. (Whoops… guess who just made poopy. ME!!) That’s right, Carrie Bradshaw herself will be at the Washington Square Macy’s (9300 SW Washington Square Road) in the fragrance department this FRIDAY, August 17 at noon to promote her new horribly named perfume, COVET. (But c’mon… with a honker like the one she has, how could it smell bad?)
Now personally, I’m allergic to perfume, which is why I will be leering from roughly 50 yards away. But if I weren’t? I would surely be seduced by Covet’s “hypnotic bouquet of crushed geranium leaves, fresh Sicilian lemon… sensuous musk, exotic woods and smoldering amber that leave an intoxicating afterglow.” YES! I don’t care if I am allergic, I’m going to smell the SHIT out of that perfume!!
And even better, the first 300 people to purchase the $140 Deluxe Gift Set will receive the opportunity to have Sarah personally sign their bottle of Covet! (I only wish I could get her to sign this horrifying YouTube video of the Covet commercial, where Sarah is going batshit crazy.) See you Friday, Sarah! I’ll be the drooling fan on the right side of your nose!!

Calling all PDX designers! I know you’re all “DIY” and all… but invent something as good as this Necktie Fan (that can be plugged into the USB port on your computer), and you’ll have the world at your feet! (Or at chest level. Because it’s cooler there.)

Thanks to Plastic Bamboo!

On Saturday, I went and checked out NE Alberta’s latest addition, IDOM (1600 NE Alberta). The tiny shop is well worth checking out: It’s run by Modi Soondarotok, whose (yes that’s her name backwards) IDOM line dominates the store’s merchandise. Lots of great colors and diverse fabrics, in pieces that range from sculptural dresses to simple jersey tops, the line is exteremely well priced. Filling out the rest of the store are gorgeous bags from Soondarotok’s friend Jenny Yuen, as well as jewelry and accessories brought back from Soondarotok’s hometown of Bangkok. A graduate of Parsons, she’s worked for some impressive designers (Peter Som, Armani), and her pieces are designed to flatter a wide range of women. Definitely check her out next time you’re in the neighborhood.

(I didn’t end up getting a good shot of them on their own, but check out the construction on the two dresses hanging to the right. They’re the only two she’s made because they are so labor intensive.)

(I ended up buying this jersey leopard tunic in blue)

(Some gorgeous Jenny Yuen bags on the left side there)

(more Yuen…)