This Week in the Mercury
Monday, October 8, 2012
Event The Portland Fashion & Style Awards: A Recap
Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 12:14 PM
With almost 100 nominees given a pair of tickets each, Friday night's first-ever Portland Fashion and Style Awards had a decent attendance. Not a packed house—there were plenty of empty seats where I was sitting at the orchestra level—but not the ghost town I'd feared, with tickets as high as $100 and at press time as low as $35 (in a city where tickets for full-on fashion shows rarely exceed $20, even if they're benefits). Perhaps influenced by my public criticism of the event and its methods, perhaps not, I did not win the nomination for "best fashion and style writer"—that went to the Portland Monthly's Eden Dawn. The complete list of who did win is after the cut, typos and all.
Among all those people who had dressed up for the event's red carpet and the sweet speeches given by winners who were clearly touched by the honor of winning, I... didn't regret anything I've said about the event, which was clearly a fun night out for a lot of people, but it perhaps seemed like less of a threat to an industry whose success is measured by markers more tangible than a vote or a trophy. If you prefer to live in a world where Tony Peniche (a designer I once lambasted for sending tee-shirts screen printed with guns, bullet belts, and models' own jeans down the runway at Portland fashion week, then gave him my unofficial "most improved' award for his Art Institute graduate collection, which evidenced remarkable evolution, but who is still a very young, not very well known, and amid his other dealings, not even very focused or visibly prolific in the world of actual apparel making) is "best fashion designer," why bother stopping you?
Something that I think is to the event's credit—and which you rarely see in the city core—is its inclusiveness of the metro area. In addition to categories broken up by the typical quadrants, the PFSAs included awards for places on the "east side" and "west side," the lands beyond the unofficial border of 82nd Ave and out in the other direction to Beaverton (and beyond?). But however well intentioned (there was clearly effort made to erect an elegant stage setting, although other choices (Oregon Duck and Oregon Beaver mascots, anyone?) were puzzling), the significance of the trophies once they left the room is debatable at best. If the event returns in a year, I hope it invites and allows itself to be influenced by a heavier hand of industry expertise instead of relying on nominees to be their own hype machines. If it chooses not to, it will need to content itself with being a glittery, good willed night on the town, but one with little influence of its own.
Best Fashion and Style Writer
Eden DawnBest Fashion and Style Publication
Skorch MagazineBest Fashion and Style Photographer
Foto DoorBest Salon SE
FluxBest Salon SW
The National BeautyBest Salon N/NE
ArabellaBest Salon East Side
Resurface SkinBest Salon West Side
Brow BettyBest Salon NW/Pearl
Magnum OpusBest Designer Accessory
MandelenaBest Boutique SE
MachusBest Boutique SW
Ann BocciBest Boutique N/NE
BalktalkBest Boutique East Side
Branch and BirdBest Boutique West Side
EG PageBest Boutique NW/Pearl
FollyBest Dressed Man
David ScottBest Dressed Woman
Tabitha KnightBest Stylist Make-up
M'chel Bauxal-GleasonBest Stylist Hair
Ambrosia CareyBest Model Petite
Elizabeth Ruth PettyjohnBest Model Plus
Keri AtkinsBest Model Male
Scott FordBest Model Female
Kodi SawyerBest Designer Fashion
Toni Dimitri Peniche
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