This year's Portland Fashion Week is shaping up to being pretty exciting. I'm excited to be part of pulling together the opening night's Presentation show of standing installations (Oct 6) from designers like Idom and the Haunt crew, and happy to have some venerable regional labels like Pendleton along with favorites like Souchi, too. I'm also really happy that Seth Aaron is getting involved this year, not only by showing a collection, but also lending his expertise to the Emerging Designer selection committee, on which I served alongside him yesterday. No matter how you slice it, his TV-heightened profile is going to amplify the press attention, but today's announcement that two more Project Runway alums are joining the lineup is... surprising. Not necessarily bad, but weird. Henderson apparently recruited some of his pals from Season 7: "Jonathan Peters and Jay Sario will launch their first post-Project Runway Collections in Portland to buyers, consumers and press." Okay, well... whatever. Welcome to Portland, guys! Bring your favorite reporters and buyers with you, please! Another interesting addition is Colombian designer Amelia Toro, "dresser of personalities like Hillary Clinton and the Spanish royal family." This is going to be quite an interesting year, guys. Exciting.
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