HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH ADAM ARNOLD, RYAN CHRISTENSEN AND ELIZABETH DYE
WED, JAN 27TH, 2010
The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent Portland fashion designers together for an evening of intimate conversation. A former Willamette Week fashion columnist and owner/designer of the English Dept., Elizabeth Dye has produced handmade ready to wear and bridal pieces since her first collection in 2001. Owner/founder of Portland Monthly’s 2006 Best Local Clothing line Sameunderneath for ten years, Ryan Christensen currently sits on the board of Caldera, a non-profit arts education and camp for underserved Oregon children. A collaborator in Portland’s The Collections and Fashion Week since 2001 and nationally distributed, Adam Arnold designs and creates two men and women’s lines of ready to wear and made to measure services from his Portland studio.
Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” The Oregonian's Barry Johnson remarked "at this point, we don't know whether we're headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we're going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series."
The New Oregon Interview Series is presented by New Oregon Arts and Letters, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as 2GQ, the publishers of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly.
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF
A former Willamette Week fashion columnist, Elizabeth Dye is a Portland, Oregon-based clothing designer who produced her first collection in 2001. She takes inspiration from the past, often using rare fabrics and one-of-a-kind details in her handmade pieces. Her work is feminine but modern, a mix of period complexity and classic fit. She seeks to design pieces that renew the intimate relationship between a woman and a beautiful garment---to create clothes for all time.
From his studio in Southeast Portland, Adam Arnold designs and creates two men and women’s lines per year. Providing ready to wear, as well as made to measure services, his garments are known for their clean lines, modern silhouettes, timeless appeal and exacting construction.
After moving to Oregon from Fresno, CA and graduating from the teaching program at Portland State University, Ryan Christensen applied his philosophies on equality and humanism taken from his own youth as a child of an inter-racial couple and his diverse upbringings to Sameunderneath, a sustainable urban clothing line launched in 1999 which was voted “Best Local Clothing Brand” by Portland Monthly in 2006. Ryan continued to be the visionary of Sameunderneath until late 2008 when he sold the company. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for The Oregon Bus Project, a progressive political organization and Our United Village, a community based organization that empowers neighborhoods to work with each other to tackle community obstacles. He also sits on the Board of Advisors for Caldera, a non-profit arts education and camp for underserved Oregon children.
