It’s been a fashion drought ever since the boom of the holidays. Like the Sahara desert, and Isaac Hers’ Fall 2012 fashion show is the watering hole we’ve all been waiting for. And when I say we, I mean Eden Dawn who takes her front row seat with a pen and pad in hand, Sami Boyle of Portlandlookbook, and Ashkan of dayafterpdx, who has photographer Jaycob set up beside me. Nicholas Peter is here with his muse Zoe, and his mentor Levenda is somewhere to be found. Meanwhile Mike Andersen and his Woodlands crew circulate the room waiting for this triple-feature fashion show to begin. Pale light comes through the windows of the warehouse space that Jillian Rabe found to throw the party and show. The space has some of my favorite features for creating pageantry in the city, like the busy one-way street outside where motorists roar their engines past the crowded sidewalk while everyone begins to push inside.

The show begins with mist billowing from the runway, and we see Barbara Seipp’s new Fall 2012 looks. New looks, yes, but also some familiar ideas which have been proven in past collections. Like the maxi-length silhouette that Seipp has made into somewhat of a science,  a silhouette that defines her iconic Diablo skirts and now reincarnates for Fall as a long maxi jacket with slim fitted sleeves, wide peaked lapels that lie subtly flat, and a midnight blue lining that flitters to be seen. The two lobster claw clasps make the hourglass-shaped front opening possible.

As far as models, Kate and Meredith need just step out for a second to remind everyone that it’s their classic look and flawless runway performances that allow them to dominate the Portland indie scene. Meanwhile, Zoe seems to be the newest standout, walking in Solestruck shoes and sporting some of the earlier Isaac Hers spring collection and doing it so well that someone may wonder why she wouldn’t be in future lookbooks. And I’ve yet to mention all the guys walking for The Woodlands who, needless to say, killed it.

Seipp’s shirt dress also covers a lot of ground. It’s topped with a wide soft collar, then midway there’s no cinch to be found, just a natural waist with a straight drape that terminates in a slight high-low hem (I just stole that term from Ashley, thanks!). I’d still like to see this dress up close because I couldn’t quite make out the stitch that lines and decorates the hem; also I’d like to see the triangle stitch where the collar closes because I think it’s a great detail to showcase on an otherwise streamlined garment.

The last detail I’ll mention is the use of  ”baseball tee” constructed sleeves on the blue-black maxi and the sand/copper blouse. On the maxi (below), the black sleeves crop the silhouette change the shape of the torso, which really makes the face pop. The effect is more subtle on the sand/copper top (above), but the blocking effects from the sleeves are tremendous as the garment becomes geometric and broken up, but at the same time remains clean around the shoulders. What makes the sleeves a different color? Is it right way/wrong way, or is the bias faced differently? I can’t tell from the picture, but it adds a great shape to the shoulders.

When did you start making patterns, and where did you learn?

I started making patterns late last year when I enrolled in Intro to Patternmaking at Portland Sewing in the Hollywood District. I had no idea how to do it and had only attempted, poorly, before taking the class. There are 4 levels and I’m just finishing up the last one, I’ll be done in about 2 weeks. Along with that, I’m also finishing up my last draping class, which is another form of pattern making. It can be difficult at times, it really depends on what it is. Sometimes I get it right the first time, sometimes it takes me several times to get the look and fit that I’m going for.

How did you come up with geometric piece on the front neckline? How is it attached?

On this dress, the shapes are hand sewn onto the neckline. I wanted to keep the dress simple, because I thought the fabric looked so natural, but I still wanted to have fun with it. The idea just kind of came to me and I just played around with it a bit until I liked it, and then sewed all the pieces on. I still wanted them to move a little, which is why I chose to hand sew them.

What’s next? What are you going to do now to challenge yourself?

I’m not sure what’s next. I’m working on Dress #15, although it’s still in the pattern process. I have a lightweight denim that I really love and I’ve been wanting to make a denim dress for a while, so I’m excited about finally being able to do it! Every time I get an idea, I draw it out, but I always end up changing things when I actually sit down to start it. I think I need the stress a bit.

Since my last visit, Matt and Jim have been building up the largest portfolio of single-origin coffees available in Montana. They’ve remained the only light-roast choice for coffee enthusiasts in Missoula, rolling out a natural process blend called BLOOM, pulling in a Cup of Excellence from El Salvador, and topping it all off with their lightest roast yet: a Rwandan from the Musasa Cooperative.

Unlike the roasters in Portland and elsewhere, Jim and Matt aren’t roasting everything to a relatively similar level. They’re selling light brown beans as well as slick black beans. So when I visit Jim Chapman on a cold sunny day, we talk about how they determine a roast profile for each coffee and how the lighter roasts have been received by their customers.

But this isn’t just another conversation about light roast vs. dark roast. Black Coffee Roasting Company is in the unique position of introducing lighter-roasted coffees to a market that hasn’t seen anything like it. This is first contact, so they’ve had to offer the dark blends alongside the lighter single-origins in order to retrain the palates of the coffee-drinking community. Going a step further, their Black & Tan blends a light Brazil roast with a darker roast of the same bean, giving their customers a gradual step toward the single origins.

Tell me about the Black & Tan’s conception. How did you discover that you needed a darker Brazil roast, and how did you decide to blend a dark and light roast?

We came up with the Black & Tan when cupping a spectrum of light and dark roasted Brazil. Brazil is an interesting bean because it has unique characteristics on both ends of the spectrum. As of opening here in Missoula, Montanans were accustomed to dark roasts, period. We had a lot of requests early on for roasts darker than what we were offering, so we wanted to find a bean that could go that direction. Blending the lighter and darker style of the same bean felt as natural as blending coffees from different origins, because the light and dark roasts taste considerably different than one another but compliment each other nicely.  And so, Black & Tan was born, and people seem to love it.

And the Rwanda is on the other side of the spectrum as far as bean development. Would you prefer to be roasting everything lighter?

We do not really see ourselves as ever limiting our roast style to one end of the spectrum or another. We test every bean we get on a full scale of the spectrum. A crop can be different year to year, and we will roast them according to that crop’s characteristics. This Rwanda is fantastic on the lighter side and we have a few others that seem to do great on that end of the spectrum as well. We have had to explain why we roast the way we do to this market, but people have been very receptive and are excited about the concept of tasting the differences that a lighter roast can highlight in coffee beans. Looking across the spectrum of our coffees I would say the majority of our coffees’ roasts fall in the middle, somewhere between light and dark.

How do your wholesale accounts and end-consumer effect how your roast?

There have been a few coffees in the past that we thought were terrific with a very light roast but would be fairly unapproachable to the masses, and so we took it just a little further. People loved them. One was from Bolivia, another from El Salvador. They were great the way we profiled them, but if it was just for ourselves we might have gone a touch lighter. Matt and I share very similar palates, and often blindly choose the same coffees when cupping. This has made bean development quite easy in terms of agreeing on which direction we are taking a coffee.

But for the most part Matt and I get more excited about the dynamics of lighter to medium roasted beans, where nuance and complexity are more front and center. We want to roast coffee for both the coffee geeks and for those that do not want to think about it. We want coffee to be approachable and simple, but we ourselves delve so far into this we can’t help but focus on the complexity. We want to serve simple cups, but we also want to highlight all the various and unique characteristics. Do those two objectives collide? Maybe. But at least they collide in the same cup.

We do custom roasts for several accounts in which we work with them to find the specific style of coffee they are looking for and that their customers are looking for. This level of development is what we love about the coffee world, because everyone notices different things about coffee and takes different things from it. This keeps our days dynamic, and our palates in motion. We get to highlight different coffee characteristics for each unique account’s needs.

I’m visiting the home and studio of Joey Maas, whose Pop Art paintings have a steadily growing fan base in Portland. He sits at the dining room table with his dog, Rocky, and drinks coffee before going to work on a new painting. He lives with his wife, Shauna Haider, and brother-in-law, Carey Haider, and the three of them make up a household that is radioactive with creativity.

What initially inspired you to go in the pop art direction? What did you like about that look?

Well, to put it simply, what inspired me to start painting was a really ugly bedroom.  I’ve always been a fan of modern design and decor, but my bedroom at the time was hideous with bad 1970′s faux wood paneling and brown carpet, and since I was renting, I couldn’t really tear it all up and put up fresh drywall.  My only option was to liven it up with some bright colored artwork.

I always loved the bold yet simplistic style that classic pop art projected.  It seems to work in just about any room, and people can identify with it.  There’s a lot of great art out there, but a lot of it isn’t something that appeals to the general public.  Pop art defies that for the most part.  I’m not really an artist that’s trying to make a huge sociopolitical statement, I just want to make things that look good.  A lot of artists would probably call that shallow.

And I imagine you get tired of hearing people refer to your work as just “pop art style”. In your own words, how is your work different? How have you tried you differentiate yourself from the classic works?

Obviously the classics are what initially inspired my earlier pieces, and it’s pretty apparent by looking at them.  As I became more comfortable with my work, I started to include more design elements, as well as getting much more detailed with my portraits.  I started adding text, numbers, shapes etc, to define my style.  I guess I would call it Neo Pop Art.

Joey’s attic studio has low angled ceilings and just enough floor space to fit a large blank canvas. He sits cross legged and begins working on his next piece.

See also:

Adam Friedman & Maryanna & Jake

“Shirt is Gitman Vintage, got it at Union Made in SF. Waistcoat is from Epaulet in Brooklyn, ordered it off their web store.”

“These are Mark McNairy New Amsterdam Brogues. They’re one of the few that he’s made in something other than suede, and they manage to wistande the rain pretty well.”

“My 3sixteen jeans are from the Woodlands, they’ve been my favorite since I got them in May.”

“The suit jacket is a great vintage score from Buffalo. The pin is a gift from a friend, who bought it in an antique store in Texas. I bought the red boots from a friend in his apartment in Tempe, AZ.”

“I’d been riding a little moped for awhile when a lady friend of mine (and avid rider) approached me about the motorcycle.  It’s a 1974 Honda CL100. I couldn’t resist.”

“It’s a scrambler; the exhaust pipe is set higher off the ground than a CB so it’s meant for a little off-roading. I bought it with 1,000 miles on it, and my guess is that the original owner bought the bike for his wife, who never rode it.  I absolutely love it.”

Back in Reid’s shop, he’s working on the “toe puff” or “toe box”, which stiffens the front of the toe for protection and maintains its structure and shape.

And while he’s working, I come across a pair of sidelace oxfords (below) he finished a few weeks ago:

“It’s called a side lace, and it’s not very common but I like it a lot. That pair would technically be considered and oxford if you want to classify them, with a beveled waist. They are the simplest version of a side lace that I’ve done, and I wanted more emphasis on shape rather than pattern. The triangle stitch helps hold the tongue on the lining, and the heel is finished with a puzzle-piece lift. The construction is English welted, which is what the Goodyear machine was created to mimic. One problem about welting machines machine is that the needles cannot change direction, so two threads are used. When the welt is done by hand, there is one thread with two needles, one attached to each end, therefore creating a much stronger welt. Also, machine welts do not use a leather insole but instead use synthetics which is one of their greatest downfalls.”

The decoration on the side of his Prince Albert loafers catches my eye. It was created using a decorative wheel pressed into the dense leather after the heel was constructed.

On the underside of the heel there’s a nail pattern consisting of five carefully placed triangle pairings of nails. It’s a pattern of German descent, he tells me, and it reminds me that those seemingly-superfluous details are what make handmade shoes are so special; whether the wearer is climbing a set of stairs or sitting with their legs crossed on the MAX, those almost-hidden details reveal something their character.

See Also:

Reid Elrod Shoes Part 1

Reid is currently making shoes starting at $700. If you are interested in having a pair of bespoke shoes made for you please send your information to marrowmag at gmail dot com and I will pass it on.

I’m thrilled to visit Maryanna & Jake in their their new SE Portland home. I’ve been a fan of their illustration and design styles, which are each finely-honed and distinct, but amalgamate nicely in their collaborative projects. The decor of their home, their clothing, and the imagery in their most recent work suggest that the two artists share a reverence for the past and the passage of time.

In the new house, a roomy studio catches the morning daylight. Paintings for Maryanna’s upcoming show line the perimeter of the room. She will show her work next at Pony Club Gallery, and in April she’ll be at the Stumptown Comics Fest showcasing her first comic book.

Jake is quite prolific. He currently resides at Roundhouse Agency, where he produces imagery for Adidas, Skullcandy, and others. The process behind some very interesting projects are documented on his blog, including how he created his own personal brand to a recent project utilizing Tanner Good’s ability stamp leather with custom designs.

Maryanna and Jake met in 2009, and soon they began to draw together and collaborate. Eagle & Wolf is their collaborative entity, and there you can find a portfolio of images including some from their most recently finished campaign for Lemolo Baggage.

Maryanna neals down and retrieves several posters from a chest on the living room floor. They’re advertising posters that Jake’s father, who worked for Sandstrom design as an art director before going freelance for several years, made for Warn Winch Co. and Tommy Bahamas. Now, Kurt Hollomon teaches drawing and illustration at PNCA and carries on a blog featuring a regularly growing collection of his own studies.

I’m in Reid Elrod’s basement studio and he’s telling me about the tools and machines that lay around us. Everything has a story behind it. First, he shows me a pair of metal tools that he received from his mentor and master shoemaker, Marcell Mrsan. After acknowledging his need for a teacher in order to move forward with his shoe making, Reid attended Marcell’s 5-week workshop in Budapest. During this stint in Hungary, Reid picked up a skiving knife and channel knife, both reproduced for Marcell from some older knives from 1939 Sweden, and both made from 56 rockwell steel.

Then there’s the Consew sewing machine and a Landis sole cutter, which Reid picked up on two separate occasions in Los Angles. Machines used for leather work and shoe making are rare these days, Reid tells me, so he keeps his eye open on Craigslist for uncommon finds that shave hours off his production time.

The skiving machine is a major time saver. Each piece of leather needs its edges thinned so that it can be easily sewn to another piece of leather, creating a smooth seam. By hand, slicing small strips away from the width of the leather is atime consuming process, so Reid picked up the skiving machine from an Armenian couple in LA.

Some skiving can’t be done by machine, like the leather for the toe puff for a pair of 2-inch heels he is making for his mother, so he holds a marble plate between his legs and thins the piece of leather by hand. Using a a curved knife, one of the two tools he brought home from Hungary, Reid cuts toward himself and shaves thin the leather.

Reid’s uppers are made from chrome tanned leathers, which stretch nicely, retain dye, and age well. He generally uses JR Rendenbach soles, which are made in Germany. The Rendenbach leather spends up to 9 months bathing in oak tanning fluid, resulting in a very breathable, very durable  sole. The inlaid wool is an English cashmere found at B. Black & Sons in Los Angeles.

As he works I look around and see blue lasts in every corner of the room. “When I first started making shoes I bought some wood lasts from Oregon Leather and they are perfect because they are so anatomically correct, but I haven’t been able to find any more,” he tells me, “so most of these lasts are plastic and they come from Mexico. They are high density and I have to use a grinder and a hack saw to shape them up, but they work great in the end and last forever.”

“If I made a ready-to-wear line, I’d have the proper lasts made up for me for each size. Those lasts would be made to fit the shape of foot for the most amount of people. But for now I create a custom last each time I work with someone new.”

Reid is currently making shoes starting at $700, so if you are interested in having a pair of bespoke shoes made for you please send your information to marrowmag at gmail dot com and I will pass it on.

See Also:

Reid Elrod Shoes Part 2

Adam Arnold & Anthony Parrish Leather