Local Fashion

I'm always quick to defend Seattle, I absolutely think it's one of the best places on Earth. Granted, I haven't been to many other places on Earth, but I just have this really strong feeling about it, ok? And even though I love, LOVE, this place, my home, I just have a couple bones to pick with it. There are some things I just can't defend, and I could definitely make a list of them in short order to share with you.

1. Our sad, sad transit situation. For some reason we are 20 years behind ever other major metropolitan area at least and we're just now slowly starting to catch up.

2. What's up with the crappy pastries? I know people have said this before, but it's so true. I kind of like Top Pot Doughnuts (not as good as Voodoo though) and the French bakery in Wallingford is also great. But that's it?


La Boulangerie

3. Condos. Let's leave the city be, ok you scummy developers? Oh wait, you already can't sell anything because no one wants to buy a $500,000 one bedroom at Denny Triangle, and if they did make that mistake they've lost half the value in the last year. And you ruined all of Capitol Hill! Go away condo monsters! Give us affordable rentable properteez!

4. Passive-Aggressive-ness. Everyone knows we're like this weird kind of nice/not nice human and we like to quietly judge. Sometimes I'm ok with it (like I would rather not talk to people on the bus, so that's ok) but sometimes it bugs me (like ok if someone is trying to PISS on said bus then it's definitely ok to speak angry words).

like roommates, Seattle is

AND, 5....of course is our standing in the FASHION world. Let's discuss.

Alright. Pros and cons. Our outdoor industry is awesome. REI, Eddie Bauer, Filson...our region is known for our love of outdoor culture and the designers in charge have been slowly catching on the the prospect of using fashionable styles along with utilitarian designs. Also, Snowboard Connection! They carry great local lines of ski/snow/skatewear. And now that I think about it, I'd say that the skate/urbanwear industry is basically the most successful, locally grown, forward thinking network in Seattle right now.

Ok, but we're also known for super dowdy clothing. Khakis, anyone? I blame Microsoft/tech industry and I think we are lazier about dressing for adverse weather here. We got away with it when dressing like a lumberjack was popular for everyone in the 90s, but I think we can step it up now. The thing that confuses me that I think that we have some great street style in Seattle, and I don't really buy the thing that people say about us being years behind New York--except if you look at the number of businesses that contribute to our fashion identity. We just do not have the kind of local support for forward thinking design that we should.

Let's compare to Portland. It was perfectly portrayed in the last season of Project Runway--the girl from Portland was innovative, fresh, and had a kind of style you could really pinpoint. And the Seattleite?


Fashion in Seattle is like Blaine...confused and all over the place.

So we need to correct this. When The Stranger puts out it's annual Fashion Issue, instead of pimping items from Ian and Nordstrom, it should be displaying the latest lines from the well-known, supported, reputable local designers. When students major in apparel design, instead of moving to NY/LA/SF blah blah STAY HERE! Form collectives with other designers and open up spaces in cheap neighborhoods like the CD and Georgetown! And be friendly, no one likes snobs, only snobby design. But most of all, let's support the local businesses that are paving the way for good design in this city, and ignore the ones who aren't.



NOT HERE



HERE

Kidding aside, I definitely think we have the power to make Seattle more successful in this area because we have the kind of atmosphere that could foster the growth we need. We just need to sort of collectively find our sense of self, style-wise. Personally I think having an outdoors/industrial-type base is perfect, and if we combine that with organic and innovative design we would be right on the money. It would be like a Euro-unisex-future thing and we would be an unstoppable army of good taste and it would be the BEST.

http://www.impulseseattle.com/
http://blackbirdballard.com/