Last night I went to the first meeting of the advisory board of Portland Fashion Week (held in a fabulously plush top-floor office building downtown). I was on the advisory board last year, but my actual involvement was minimal: I suggested several names of Portland designers that the event’s organizers—Chris Cone, Tito Chowdhury, and Tod Foulk—might approach about joining the show… and that’s it. This year promises a much closer involvement, and the event as a whole is looking like it has a much sharper focus than in ‘06. Also, I am being given a great opportunity to work with my fellow board members, an impressive, professional crowd:

Susan Bonde : Director of Apparel Design, Art Institute of Portland
Michael Callier: Associate, Tonkon Torp Attorneys
Anna Cohen: Apparel Designer, Portland, Oregon
Sharon Kitzhaber: Former First Lady of Oregon, Owner of Kitzhaber Communications
Annette Klinefelter: Executive Director, Girls Inc. NW Oregon
Keri Murphy: President, Murphy Management
Michelle O’Hara: President, Luminous Brands Consultancy
Kathy O’Neil: President, Portland Picks
Marjorie Skinner: Managing Editor, Portland Mercury
Lee Trimble: Fashion Director, GEN ART, New York

Planning is in a very early stage, with the event set to occur in October (dates are not yet exact, but ideally adjacent to LA’s fashion week, as the press will already be on the west coast), but, briefly, the PFW guys are hoping to create a “Sundance festival of fashion,” with this year’s focus appropriately on sustainable design—appropriate because that is what Portland is identified with internationally (across a number of industries), and because it is a huge issue in fashion right now. Not being limited to local designers, but inclusive of an international pool, what sustainably minded designers would you like to see on a local runway?