Finishing The Fort

Only 2 days left, & I remember when it was just a seed of an idea, prompted by me, to get The Husband & his sidekick- Lil' Jake a little focus. They had started their design company- The Kenton Collective, The Husband leaving his designer job with a local firm & Jake moving to Portland from Brooklyn, just in time for the depth of The Great Recession.

There they sat in the Post Apocalyptic dining room, bouncing off their ideas, as I passed through & tossed out: "You dudes should open up a pop-up shop in Downtown during the holidays." I didn't actually think that the design duo would really run with idea, I just wanted the Kenton Collective to get out of the house & take their defeated attitude with them.

6 Months later, Downtown Portland had 5000 square feet of consummately curated retail space, unlike anything put out before. Boys' Fort was on the must list, during the Holidays, for Portlanders looking for something new & something expressing masculine fun. I could not possibly have been more proud. I think that the pop-up is the Husband's best work of his career & the encompassment of his aesthetic. The store is as if one of The Husband's small assemblages had exploded into an eye-full of unique masculine stuff that was actually for sale. The shop was offering the work of nearly 100 of Portland's world class artists, artisans, craftsman & journeymen, & skilled crazies, full frontal exposure at one of the best corners in Downtown Portland... during the busiest shopping time of year.

Boys' Fort has been an unqualified success. Arguably the most well received & highest revenued pop-up so far. The Kenton Collective & their artists are meeting on the close of business on Monday 26th (the feast day of Saint Stephen) to open some champagne & toast the retail holiday season. Then the boys will deconstruct their creation & take down the fort. But you know how boys are... another fort could pop up where there wasn't a fort before.

The Cash Stand has a monitor embedded that shows endless loops of Harold Lloyd shorts & other silent classics.

A little secret, just between us... promise not to tell?  The Kenton Collective boys fabricated their fort with no cash, no automobile & not a lick of common sense between them. Amazing, astonishing & absurdly brilliant.