boutiqueclothing — Blog Posts

This morning I attended the bi-annual PDX Collective Sale at The Cleaners. Even though the sale didn't open until 10am, people were waiting in line outside of the doors ready to shop once it opened. Although this sale is occurs twice a year, this was the first year I had heard about it or even attended. For those of you who are in the same boat as me, here is everything you need to know! The sale continues tomorrow and the boutiques will all be restocking beforehand so don't worry about everything good being gone!

What it is:

This sale is a bi-annual event put on by PDX Collective where 11 boutiques from the Portland area come together to showcase some of their products most of which are on sale. The following boutiques are participating today and tomorrow:

Adorn
Parts + Labour
Gild Shoes
EcoVibe
Cosube
Radish Underground
Mercantile
Lizard Lounge
Bridge & Burn
Lille Boutique
Perican Bing

Where/When:

The sale is located at The Cleaners which is owned by Ace Hotel but is technically in a different location. The address is 403 SW 10th Avenue in Portland, OR. It runs Saturday thru Sunday (9/23-9/24). Today it was open from 10am-5pm and tomorrow it is open from 11am-5pm

What you need to know:

- They take cards

- Since it is multiple boutique shops in one shared room, you still buy each item from the respective boutique.

- There is a fitting room but it is one communal room that everyone changes in with some mirrors places around the walls. Definitely wear something that is easy for trying clothing on. If you are not comfortable changing around other people, this may not be the sale for you (unless you are okay purchasing without trying first)

- Many of the items are final sale so make sure you read signs

- Get there early. Although the boutiques do restock, it gets really busy really fast so it is nice to be able to see all the product before people start buying, trying on, and carrying around all of the good stuff

What I wore:

For those of you who are interested, here are the deets for what I wore. Like I mentioned before, make sure to wear something that you can easily take on and off for trying merchandise on. A dress was actually really helpful since I mostly tried on other dresses but it can also be great for trying on pants as well. Socks can also be beneficial if you plan on looking at shoes.

Shirt Dress - Forever21 (Although my exact dress is sold out, you can find almost identical items here and here)

OTK Boots - Halogen Scarlett Over the Knee Boots in grey suede

For more information:

To learn more you can check out the Facebook event page here as well as PDX Collective's Facebook page here.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions and if you attend, what kind of cute stuff you find!

My favorite type of shopping is online shopping and this post focuses on my latest mail delivery. BUT before I dive into how awesome this romper is, I first need to share the bit of backstory that goes along with it...

Originally I had seen the maxi version of this overlay lace romper featured on someone else's blog and immediately fell in love! The one that she was wearing was in Ivory and sold at Nordstrom by the brand Socialite. For a while the ivory color kept going in and out of stock until one night when I was doing my nightly online shopping, there was one small left! I couldn't quite decide whether I was a small or xs but since xs was not an option, I went with the larger size (that's one thing that can be hard about ordering online since it is hard to know what size to get without being able to try it on. Thank god for customer reviews and free returns though!)

When the maxi lace romper came in the mail it fit like a glove except for the length. Similar to this shorter romper, the bottom had a natural scalloped look and so the only way to shorten it would have been to undo the waist and resew it with a shorter skirt. I tried a handful of heels on including my tallest, five inch ones with no luck. Honestly it can be really hard to find maxi dresses when you are short (I'm 5'3") and I usually have to get them altered which over time definitely adds up especially if you factor in all of the jeans and pants I have to get hemmed as well! I SO wanted to love the maxi romper but after trying it on every day for five days straight, I had to face reality and had to return it or else it would spend the rest of its life just hanging in my closet. After facing this sad truth, I started to do some research and found that the brand Honey Punch makes the exact same maxi romper AND makes it in a shorter version. After comparing online prices I found this white romper on the website of an online boutique based in Napa, California called 2weeksnotice.

To my luck, this shorter romper ended up being the perfect compromise since I am able to achieve the same look with the same beautiful lace but at a length that suits my short frame much better! The only difference I noticed between the Socialite maxi romper and this Honey Punch shorter romper is that the v-neck is a lot lower on the later one. Although I have a pretty small bust, I still felt more comfortable with a higher neckline so I took my sewing kit out and sewed up part of the v-neck as you can see in the picture to the right

For those of you interested, this romper is now on sale for $45 from 2weeksnotice boutique in the color white but it is going fast (shop it here)! Click on the following websites to view the romper in other colors as well as the maxi version for you taller babes!