So the Portland Fashion & Style Awards thing is still set to go down on Friday (at the Schnitz no less!)—with tickets ranging from $35-ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (!). Yesterday they released the final list of nominees for 25 categories covering aspects of the industry from retail, apparel design, hair styling, modeling, and more. Out of all the nominees (four in each category, so 100, give or take a small amount of overlap), guess how many of them I have ever heard of? A very generous 32, including myself and at least six people I allowed because I squinted and thought, "that name sounds vaguely familiar..." I can recall having actually interacted with 23 of them, again, including myself. Of those 23, 18 are brick 'n' mortar businesses, mostly boutiques, which are by far the most recognizable category.

I've posted the complete list of nominees on MOD. See how many names you can recognize. It'll be like bingo.