Gossip Should Have No Friends

[September 13th, 2006] ALL WET The staff at Artists Repertory Theatre was floundering last week when the season opener, Metamorphoses, sprang a leak—literally. Companies mounting the show are contractually obligated to perform it in water, a stipulation with which artistic director Alan Nauss readily complied by building a $6,000, 4-foot-deep pool on ART's Main Stage . Unfortunately, the hot tub wasn't watertight, and the company had to drain it to prevent damage to the building. No matter: The show opened on time last Friday with a whole lot of silk and some cleverly placed tubs taking the place of the missing water. (See review, page 57.)

COLLECTION REFLECTIONS: Amid MusicfestNW and TBA (see reviews on pages 27 and 31) was a little fashion event that went by the telling moniker The Collections . Last week's Scoop highlighted designer Adam Arnold's somber take on terror-times dressing. This week, Scoop's coverage is so vast we had to move it all to the Web. Lucky you. Check out wweek.com to read about what The English Dept.'s Elizabeth Dye was showing (and wearing), learn all about Portland Streetcar fashions , contemplate models-as-sculpture and find out who crashed Dayna Pinkham 's hat show in his usual charismatic fashion.

PACK UP YOUR HO-BAG Getting paid to crowd into a van full of escorts and strippers crisscrossing the country: It's not a wet dream or a porn plot. It's the Fifth Annual Sex Workers' Art Show Tour (sexworkersartshow.com) and—attention, local X-rated employees—it wamts to highlight your, er, talents . The tour showcases art by sex industry insiders, ranging from photography to dance to spoken word. These dirty boys and girls deserve a 25-city tour because, according to the press release, "Sex trade workers are in a unique position to observe the freaky dynamics of capitalism, desire, ownership, gender, and race." Unique position, eh? Like twisted around a greased pole, upside-down? Anyway, if you're a sex worker and an artist, send submissions of 12 minutes or less to info@sexworkersartshow.com. Tour artists get $3,000 for their trouble, plus free lodging and transport. Just remember, don't drop the panties until the second song. The tour kicks off Feb. 2 at Reed College.

JET SETTER Local La Rog Jewelry heir Sam Rogoway first spun his way into the limelight as a Z100 DJ—at age 8 . All grown up now, the L.A.-based Rogoway is hoping to swap the Top 40 for the Fortune 500 with his new online business, tripmates.com . It's a "social networking site with a travel twist"—think MySpace meets Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Travelers browse user profiles for "trip buddies" to fly with or explore "travel dating." How about a frequent Mile High Club discount, Sam?

WHAT YOU MISSED ON WW'S LOCALCUT.COM THIS WEEK

MusicfestNW in review: Check out way-too-in-depth reviews of Dead Moon , the Black Keys and more, look back on a weekend of music and friends with the Local Cutters and listen to podcasts of the weekend's Local Cut showcases at Towne Lounge >> Byron Beck gets the scoop straight from Storm (see also Queer Window, page 55) >> I Can Lick any Sonofabitch in the House report from the land of sexy sheep, Montana. >> Amy McCullough calls the Minders a bunch of hookers.

WEB-ONLY SCOOP:

FUCK MUSIC, WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?

Scoop hits The Collection during Fashion Week. Here's some of the highlights.

Tuesday night brought shows by our esteemed milliner Dayna Pinkham and Linea by Jess Beebe . Pinkham kicked off the night with a packed showing at the Pearl District's Olive or Twist (preceded by a private show on a Portland Streetcar! Hello, we love it when our fashion breaks out of the mold). The crowd, featuring the bright-eyed young, wealthy elders and Portland Fashionazis, was beautiful. And of course, les chapeaux were everywhere. And we loved what the models were wearing! Black unitards, simple so as not to take away from the lids, were adorned with ruffles or topped by capelets and collars. The show was topped off by a great moment when P-town's creative-class bon vivant, Justin Oswald , wearing a Pinkham straw hat, walked through the door of the bar into the path of the runway. Realizing he might have been mistaken for a model, he smiled, waved his hand, and dashed off to the side amid giggles galore. Precious.

Moving on to Northwest Trendy-Third's Seaplane, where Jess Beebe was showcasing Linea's Fall '06 line in a series of living installations. The models strolled out, in a very '50s mannequin-esque fashion, showcasing the clothes while sitting on a leather chair or a vintage scooter. For the most part, the clothes were on target—we loved the tartan plaid, the bubble skirt and a floaty paisley chiffon number that was straight out of The Ice Storm—but word from the crowd was that the venue was way too crowded. Onlookers were smooshed into the wall, snapping the decorative branches and getting them stuck in their hair. Kinda breaks the concentration.

The showing of Elizabeth Dye's line at Simpatica was inspired by Dickensian times. Scoop fell in love from the moment the first girl hit the runway: A wearable, sophisticated Victorian approach with muted, neutral palettes in a variety of plaids. Elizabeth is all about the details, and to us that makes an item of clothing worth every penny. A cape with a box pleat in the front, a dress with a bustle, high-waisted pants...we wanted to buy it all. But back to the show: We loved the support that Elizabeth got from her peers. Rather than pooh-pooh her pieces, fellow fashionisto Adam Arnold clapped and hollered for some of his favorites...it was a wonderful testament to the solidarity of those designers showing at The Collections. Testify!

A sweaty crowd packed into a former Safeway off of Southeast Powell Boulevard Friday night for the short-lived house-party-cum-fashion show from Church and State, the progressive line by Rachel Turk and Nathaniel Crissman. The 2006 winners of the Gen Art Styles International Design Competition exhibited fitted, high-waisted cuts in winter woven wools with subtle yet commanding details. Exuding more Collection cohesiveness and fresh off the high of celebrating her own fashion gathering the night before, Elizabeth Dye of English Dept. fame graced the runway in the nights' No. 1 stunner—a crème lace country dress suspended beneath a knit mustard sweater.

Sunday's grand fashion finale, marking an end to Portland Fashion Week, zeroed in on pre-Raphaelite designs with a human art exhibit. Statuesque models stood atop white platforms like frozen sculptures in the Rake Art Gallery, displaying the collaborative design efforts and the complementary aesthetic backgrounds of Liza Rietz, Emily Ryan and Anti-Domestic. Draped tea gowns, outlandish embellishments and flowing trains abounded, seeming more like a costume ball than an eccentric end to the fashion week festivities. Splotched face makeup, resembling a self-tanning accident, only added to the memorable mix. A good hour later the models were relieved of their stations and stiff drinks, pupu platters and DJ Anjali's Middle Eastern-tinged house music overwhelmed the humid air for the Collections After Party, sponsored by local Web journal ultra, complete with a host of P-town's premium couturiers—from Seaplane gamines Holly Stalder and Kate Towers to a spruced-up Adam Arnold making the rounds.