BOYS' FORT

I sit on the Downtown Retail Council so it is sort of my fault. One afternoon in late spring, The Husband & his buddy Lil' Jake, the Portland Hip-Hop artist & designer, were sitting in the front room at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, writing in their gratitude journals & sipping green tea. I walked through the room & casually tossed off: "hey, you dudes should open a pop-up shop in downtown Portland this holiday season & show this town what you've got." What I meant was you guys need to get out of the house & drum up some business, but it came out "pop-up shop".

Made possible through a patchwork of partnerships: Portland Business Alliance, Downtown Retail Council,Portland Development Commission, the Downtown Marketing Initiative, & the city of Portland offers the gift of Pop Up Shops during the Holiday Season. I work in downtown Portland & serve on the Downtown Retail Council. I know that there are a bunch of vacant commercial spaces available downtown & I think it is a brilliant idea to make use of them while the building owners search for permanent tenants. This is a totally smart & rather Portland-ish idea. The Pop Ups give talented local designers & artisans a place to sell their wares & services, something they couldn't normally afford, & it creates buzz & publicity for the spaces. So not only do both parties involved come out winners, but so do all the shoppers who love their guys because now we have more places to shop for the holidays!

The Husband & his business partner in Kenton Collective are set to open their own Pop-Up: Boys’ Fort in late autumn. BOYS’ FORT will be a shopping spot for guys & those that love them . The shop will be featuring the works of local artists & designers using re-purposed materials & found objects with other local products & treasures with a decidedly masculine bent, offered for the modern urban male. As the Husband tells it- "think 'Manthropology'!"

This project has taking up much of the Husband’s time for the past 5 months. This pleases me that he has been focused, forceful, fresh & frisky, willing to jump off the cliff into the unknown, but giving voice to his artistic zeal. The Husband & the talented Jake have been overwhelmed with the beauty & beguilement of the offerings from their artists. Boys' Fort hosted a little affair for the participating artists, designers & crafts people in the space, their first view of the wares in the store. The crowd was over the moon. 

Boy's Fort opens with a ribbon cutting ceremony on November 9th featuring our out & proud Mayor- Sam Adams, who lives in our neighborhood & with whom I am friendly. I have included photographs of some of the views.

I feel that this project is The Husband's best work yet. I am so proud to introduce myself as his spouse. I hope you will be able to visit Boys' Fort during the holiday season in downtown Portland, the do-it-yourself capitol of the USA, the Brooklyn of the Pacific Northwest, "keeping it weird", hipster heaven...