Honed on the Prairie

Kansas jewelry designer brings her sustainable line to Eugene

Midwestern jewelry designer Kylie Grater doesn’t find her materials in a bead shop — the majority of her pieces are harvested “afoot” on nature ambles or hikes through knee-deep grass, whether that’s feathers, bones, stones or leather. The Kansas-born-and-bred Grater has brought her prairie-tinged line, Early Jewelry, to Eugene, where she features pieces at The Barn Light’s monthly The EUG Pop Up Shop in addition to selling online. Continue reading 

Bright Young Skinny Things

What’s the skinny on skinny jeans for men?

In nature, colors communicate: Red means danger and avian mates are selected based on the hue of their feathers. In fact, when it comes to birds, the males almost always display brighter plumage and greater ornamentation than their female counterparts; think ducks, peacocks and birds of paradise. Charles Darwin concluded that sexual dichromatism (the color differences between sexes in species) is caused by an evolutionary-honed female preference for bright colors in males.  Continue reading 

Night Moves

EW hits the streets to capture Eugene’s fashion-forward after dark. here, they describe their style in their own words. Grady Lambert, 23 Family-inspired. This is my dad’s jacket from the ’80s. [His dad fell in love with his mom in this very jacket.]   Malichian Davis Rabinowitz, 26 Continue reading 

Eugene Fashion Week 2013 at The Shedd

It's  official. According to local designer, business owner and coproducer of Fashion Week, Mitra Chester, the two biggest fashion shows of Eugene Fashion Week will be hosted at The Shedd, May 3 & 4. Beautiful clothes in a beautiful venue? We're in. Belly and Oak Street Speakeasy will be hosting  the smaller runway shows.  Continue reading 

Fashioning An Industry

Local designers want to bring garment production back home

EUGENE, Ore., April 2015: The fifth annual Eugene Fashion Week is only days away and the Eugene Garment House is a beehive of activity. Frenzied designers dart around the open space on the third floor of the Woolworth Building overlooking Willamette Street, colorful swatches of fabric tucked under their arms and pincushions wrapped around their wrists. Apprentices hurriedly reorganize racks of fluttering paper patterns and sample garments while production sewers put the finishing touches on a pair of couture overalls and a hemp wedding gown. Continue reading