Exhibit on Portland fashion from 2000 to 2010 offers snapshot of a vibrant era in the city

Walk into the exhibit, “Portland Fashion in the Aughts,” in a Portland State University building, and you’ll experience a snapshot of what the Rose City felt like in the years between 2000 and 2010.

On the first floor, a small room contains mannequins wearing garments made by some of the designers who helped define the scene. The clothing – an intentionally distressed version of a slip dress, an individualistic take on a gown with a pink skirt and a corset-style long top made of what looks like blue quilted jacket material, and more – reflects some of the rule-breaking, do-it-yourself ethic that was a key element among artists, musicians, writers and other creative people.

Grainy videos play on a screen beyond the clothes, showing funky fashion shows held in modest locations, clothing made from repurposed fabrics, and experimental images.

Up on the second floor, a large, white room lit by sun shining in from a wall of windows displays framed photos of models, some with carefully unkempt hair and messy makeup, wearing more pieces by local designers; garments that include a white shirt with red writing across the back (“Hold Me Love Me Kiss Me”); and a fascinating video loop of interviews with people who share thoughts about what Portland was like in the early days of the aughts.

The clothing, images, and words all evoke what Marjorie Skinner, curator and producer of “Portland Fashion in the Aughts,” describes in a panel introducing the exhibit as a period that was pre-“Portlandia,” and reflected the fact that “Portland was gathering momentum for an era in which its ‘maker culture’ would inspire the world.”

Capturing some of the spirit of the 2000-2010 era and what was happening in Portland’s hyper-local creative scene was part of what motivated Skinner to put together “Portland Fashion in the Aughts.”

Skinner had been a close observer of what was going on in design and artistic circles then, by virtue of her work as a fashion columnist for The Portland Mercury.

Following what she calls a “pretty typical journalistic instinct,” Skinner says, she wanted to create “some kind of consolidated record” of a subject she had spent a number of years covering. When the pandemic curtailed so much of ordinary life, Skinner says, “it seemed like a good time” to pursue organizing an exhibit.

“I felt like I could ask people to rummage around their basements and their attics,” she says. “It was kind of therapeutic.” In addition, working on the project was also a way to help cope with the isolation people experienced during the pandemic.

“This was an excuse to reach out to people, many of whom I hadn’t spoken to for years,” Skinner says. And it also felt like “a very personal project.”

Skinner, 45, is reluctant to make proclamations what the show might say about the Portland of the early aughts. “I really don’t want to be pedantic,” she says. “I love that this in front of students, because I’m so curious to be able to start to get some feedback from that audience, in particular. People who were not necessarily there at the time, and people for whom this isn’t an exercise in nostalgia.”

“This isn’t really about my voice,” Skinner says. “I would much rather create a container, and let it be filled with other people’s perspectives.”

Skinner does note that significant changes have happened between the 2000-2010 years and present-day Portland.

“I think on a local level, one of the most obvious is the cost of living increase,” Skinner says. Especially at the beginning of that decade, “we were paying outrageously low rents,” so people could afford to have a job “that you only did three days a week, and have plenty of time and resources to engage in your community, and go out to bars, and to shows, and do your own projects without having to hustle in the way that you do in virtually any other city.”

Another change Skinner has noticed is that, back in the aughts, “nobody was automatically comparing what we were doing in Portland to what was happening in New York, or whatever. Those comparisons were not in your face to the degree that they are now. Everything has become so coded for online consumption, there are these kind of unspoken codes around how to present things for Instagram in a way that’s going to look cool, and we didn’t really have that kind of barometer.”

Not feeling pressure to post everything online instantly gave creators room to make mistakes, and sometimes come up with ideas that, as Skinner says, now might look “pretty goofy,” as seen in some of the archival video footage playing on the first floor of “Portland Fashion in the Aughts” exhibit.

“There are a lot of ridiculous things you might see come across the screen, and you’re like, nobody would wear that. But we had the freedom to be goofy, and to experiment.”

“I don’t want to be the grumpy pants, talking about back in my day, before we had phones, and all of that kind of stuff,” Skinner says. “But I do think that things have been changing so quickly that we really haven’t had time to process” all of these developments.

“I just kind of see putting this information out there as part of giving people evidence of a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore,” Skinner says. “I would love to hear challenges from the PSU students. I want it to be something that is open for critique just as much as I want to hear what they related to. I’m really hoping it’s out there as a conversation starter.”

“Portland Fashion in the Aughts” is on display through Oct. 31 in the AB and MK Galleries at the Portland State University Art Building, 2000 S.W. Fifth Avenue. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday; and 1-4 p.m. on Saturday. To enter, look for a buzzer near the front door of the building. Visitors can also make appointments to see the exhibit. For more information: https://www.portlandfashion2000s.com/