Discovering Portland's independent shops and artisans
Direct, year-round flights now connect London with Portland, Oregon, where Jacqui Agate finds a thriving indie shopping scene that puts artisans front and centre.
Rita Hudson’s workshop is in screaming colour. Fabric swatches in dogtooth, paisley and pinstripe litter the cutting table, alongside scattered sketches of tunic dresses. An industrial sewing machine squats on a nearby worktop.
The workshop is in the corner of Union Rose, a Portland boutique selling jewellery, clothing and trinkets made by local artisans. Hudson has owned the business since 2014 and she’s always sewn clothing right in the store. Customers pore over druzy earrings and hand-dyed tank tops while she works.
“People often don’t realise the hands that go into making stuff,” Hudson tells me. Her forearm, I notice, is tattooed with a large pair of scissors. “But when you see somebody making something in front of you, you realise its value.”
Putting on a show
In Portland – newly connected to London by non-stop flights operated by British Airways – independent shopping is king. The city is home to the world’s largest indie bookstore – Powell’s Books takes over an entire block – and one-off record shops hunker down with emporiums selling hand-poured candles and prints. But what really sets Portland apart is how its makers put on a show. Artisans from glass blowers to ceramicists throw open their studio doors, confectioners conjure up sweet treats right in-store and designers bring scribbled drawings to life as patrons rummage through clothing rails. In short, Portland isn’t afraid to show its workings.
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That’s fitting for a city as liberal and offbeat as this one, where alternative culture and open hearts rule, and where “Keeping Portland Weird” – the city’s longtime slogan – is not just marketingese, but an aphorism that people live by. The city’s hipster edge was ribbed in the long-running show Portlandia, but it’s an undoubted part of its charm.
Courtesy of Portland Travel
“Portland still has a feel of the Wild West about it,” Hudson tells me, ringing up my purchase – a pair of dangly sky-blue earrings decorated with little clouds. “And that manifests itself in a very DIY attitude. The city’s maker scene is thriving.”
That thriving maker scene is on full display at the Portland Saturday Market, which opens out beside the Willamette River. It’s the largest continuously operating, open-air arts and crafts market in the country, founded in 1974, and it unfolds beneath an ocean of white tents in the city’s Old Town Chinatown neighbourhood. Artisans gather to sell everything from handcrafted bamboo flutes and tea ceremony sets to watercolours of Mount Hood, the thrusting peak that’s visible from the city on a clear day.
Courtesy of Travel Portland
I wander between stalls on a silvery morning, as the sun melts over the river. On one side, a sax player pumps out velvet jazz; on the other, the peal of an accordion clashes with the chatter of punters. Handmade soaps are stacked in little towers, colourful as sticks of rock, and the scent of essential oils – lavender, lemon and ylang ylang – is thick in the air. A jewellery maker teases a sliver of metal with a pair of pliers. “You’ve been to the best store in town,” she yells over to me, nodding towards my Powell’s Books tote bag.
But though Portland’s makers are in fine spirits, the past couple of years haven’t been forgiving.
Bouncing back
“We’re trying to claw our way out of the gutter that the pandemic threw us in,” says Charley Wheelock, founder and maker at craft confectioners Woodblock Chocolate. Wheelock established the brand with his wife, Jessica, in 2010 and they began by making the sweet stuff in their Portland kitchen. Fast-forward a decade and Woodblock Chocolate is a city favourite with a generous shop and manufactory space in well-heeled Irvington-Broadway. “And [despite COVID], we’ve still had a whole bunch of fun firsts recently,” Wheelock adds.
Among those firsts is a collaboration with Willamette Valley producer Brooks Wine – they’ve opened a chocolate-and-wine tasting room named Bon Amis at the Woodblock site. I swill a glass of pinot noir and nibble on dark-chocolate mendiants as Wheelock talks.
“Chocolate-making is similar to wine-making in so many ways,” he tells me. “We look at cocoa beans like a wine-maker looks at a grape – we try to bring out the unique agriculture. There was nobody doing that yet in Portland and we wanted to find something that the city would embrace.”
The Portland spirit
Portlanders certainly embraced the concept and, in turn, Wheelock embraced the Portland spirit: “Be who you want to be; make what you want to make; go for it. We really took advantage of that when we started our chocolate factory.”
And in true Portland tradition, the bean-to-bar chocolate-making process doesn’t unfold behind closed doors – it happens right here in the shop. Giant windows look onto the artisanal factory, a hodgepodge of hulking machines that wouldn’t look out of place in Doctor Who. Wheelock leads me between devices for cracking and winnowing cocoa beans, and shows me a huddle of ornate roasters dating back to 1910. They coat the air with a tantalising chocolatey fug. But why lay the process bare for all to see?
Courtesy of Woodblock Chocolate
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“I’m a process guy,” Wheelock says. “And I like to show off – I’m proud of what I do. Plus, who wants to work in a place with no windows?”
“We didn’t necessarily start this for a love of chocolate,” he adds. “It was more so for our love of making stuff.”
And whether it’s roasting artisan chocolate, handcrafting jewelled earrings or sewing one-off dresses, it’s Portland’s love of making stuff that makes it the city it is.
Four more independent shops to discover in Portland
Powell’s Books
Courtesy of Travel Portland
Portland is immensely proud of Powell’s, a juggernaut of a shop that’s tipped as the largest independent bookstore in the world. It opened in 1971 and has been a stalwart of the Pearl District ever since. Weave between alleys of floor-to-ceiling shelves, filled with old and new titles on everything from archaeology and art to the Pacific Northwest – there are 3,500 different sections in all. You can delve into your purchases at the onsite café too.
Tender Loving Empire
Tender Loving Empire is Portland distilled: eclectic, creative and wonderfully weird. The store is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Jared and Brianne Mees, and it sells a mish-mash of crafts, drinks and gourmet gifts by local makers, plus music produced by the store’s very own label, Tender Loving Empire Records. Browse shelves heaving with artisanal sea salt, jellies and hot sauce, and pore over loud socks, pins and clothing stamped with “Rose City”. You’ll be serenaded by hopping jazz or indie folk as you do.
Kiriko Made
Design fiends should make for Kiriko, a sophisticated shop that champions Japanese textiles. High-quality and traditional kasuri fabrics are conjured into scarves, shirts and kimonos and an open studio means you can see artisans at work. Every crevice of the store is stuffed with clothing or curios, from a kaleidoscope of pocket squares hanging from the ceiling to cabinets filled with vintage ceramics. Pick up a coffee table book on Japanese culture and design and continue the aesthetic at home.
Mississippi Records
Courtesy of Justin Katigbak, Travel Portland
No stranger to lists of America’s top vinyl shops, Mississippi Records has been going strong for the best part of two decades. Rummage through the shelves and you’ll find everything from Greek rebetiko music and folksy Americana to classic rock, funk, jazz and gospel. The brand also has its own record label, which operates out of Chicago.
For more information, visit travelportland.com.
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