Portland Fashion Week Ready to Roll, benefitting Oregon Manifest

On October 10th a different kind of fashion show happened celebrating the bike friendly spirit of PDX. Ready to Roll showcased new designs via a runway show highlighting both bikes and fashion together from Apres Velo, Cestelli, Hell Yes, Icebreaker, Keen, Nau, Patagonia, Simple Shoes, and Showers Pass to name a few. Thought I'd share a few photos that found inspiring from this event.

Fun Design Project for Filson

One of the best things about having a freelance design studio is the variety of work and projects that you get to work on. Last Spring I worked together with the Filson team up in Seattle to create some new outerwear pieces for their collection. Filson is one of the few classic American heritage brands that has been in business for a very long time, since 1897.

1897 Klondike gold seekers come to C.C. Filson for rugged outfits to survive -50 cold.
1902 Loggers line up for Filson's new clothing line for loggers.
1914 Patent is granted for Filson Cruiser coat, still made and sold today.
1927 Filson Cruiser becomes copied extensively when patent expires.
1941 Filson expands its line of boots.
1945 U.S. Forest Service commissions new water repellent garments, dyed Forestry Green.
1985 Factory moves to Seattle's historic Pioneer Square, 5 blocks from original 1897 store.
1991 Luggage line is re-introduced, made of Rugged Twill and Bridle Leather.
1996 Fly fishing vests are introduced after 10 years of research and development.
1998 New lodge-like store opens in historic building 10 blocks from original location.
2003 Original Wool Shirt made of 100% virgin Merino wool is introduced.
2005 New Recoil Pad Technology introduced in our Super Shooting Shirts and in several of Shooting and Hunting Outerwear products. New, easier to use website introduced.

The office location is near to the flagship store in Seattle, and they are one of the few brands that still has a factory right there making oilcloth and leather clothing, bags, and goods right there. It is a beautiful thing to see the craftsmanship that goes into the pieces that they make. Here are a few of the pieces that were created for Filson by SY Design that you can now find on their website. It doesn't take long to realize that they take their slogan "Might As Well Have The Best," very seriously.

Classic Down never goes out of style, these pieces utilize a unique polyester/wool blend fabric with a special down proof construction. The fabric really gives these style a unique outdoor twist for Filson.



The Wingshooting Jacket is Filson's first lighter weight WPB hunting jacket. This was a fun style to create because it uses many of the latest technologies, and has integrated inside pocketing to accommodate a recoil pad for either left or right handed shooters.




The North Fork Wading Jacket for $325.00 is a beautiful classic fly fishing WPB jacket, that has been lightened up a little from what the traditional Filson look would normally be.

I'm back! Outside magazine, Gear of the Year Award 2010!!

I know... I've fallen off the face of the earth with my blogging since mid-summer. What's a girl to do? Twitter has been growing like mad and I've been spending more time doing updates more often there. You can always check them out here for almost daily tweets about the outdoors, adventure, fashion, green living, music, etc.

But, I'm promising to get back at it again and start getting some blog posts going on a more regular basis too. Besides it's time to post some thoughts on all the new Fall/Winter product out there right now.

I was really excited to hear that the FirsTurn softshell jacket that I designed for Cloudveil recently won Outside magazine's Gear of the Year award for winter 2010! Yipee, it's not every day that it happens so when it does it's time to celebrate. Thought I would share some photos of the creation and final product here for you.

Here it was way back in March of 2008 when I created it...




Tons of details to call out for the factory to make sure it ends up being just right



and finally the finished product, voila`!