ANYA
GORSON 
It was love
at first sight. My friend Erin threw herself a birthday
party a couple of months ago and, to commemorate
the event, commissioned a dress of long green silk
(lined with pink silk) from her designer friend,
Anya. Everyone is in love with Erin. But that night,
as she flitted around filling everyone's cups with
hot mulled wine from a silver tea kettle, I fell
in love with her DRESS.
A couple
of weeks later Erin paid me a visit at work. Everyone
is in love with Erin. But that night people were
ooohing and aaahing over her skirt. It was a classy
light brown tweed a-line number, but with wonderfully
elegant detailing--a swath of coffee-colored satin
shimmied over her hips and a thin ribbon of pink
lured your eyes to her waist. Where did she get
it? From her designer friend, Anya Gorson.
Fashion
designers are a dime a dozen in Portland nowadays,
but the truly talented are few and far between.
Anya is the best I've seen. She's been 
designing
clothes since she was eight years old, and has honed
her talent interning for Portland's rare couture
birds, working for a designer of underwear for gay
men, and at the Art Institute of Portland. Picking
through her closet you'll find elegant evening dresses,
beaded and boned corsets, space-age vests constructed
of film (yes, film) and the loveliest little sundresses
you've ever seen. There's also a Missing Persons
bubble wrap dress tucked away in the back.
All of Anya's
one-of-a-kind pieces are made from recycled fabrics
she finds at thrift stores and Goodwills. A passionate
environmental awareness infuses all her designs,
and she prefers to work only in natural materials.
While a
small handful of her pieces are available at the
Red Light on Hawthorne, they will be more prominently
featured at PIN ME, a new store opening on
North Mississippi in early 2005. You can contact
her for more info 
on her ready-to-wear line, which
ranges in price from $35 to $150, or to commission
the dress of your dreams.
"What is
most important to me in designing a garment is the
fit, the way it falls on the body. A beautiful garment
is useless when it doesn't look good on a person,"
says Anya.
Try wearing
an Anya Gorson garment and see if the whole world
doesn't fall in love with you, too.
