When I first moved back to Eugene from Portland after three years of living in the Rose City, my mum looked me up and down at the train station and said, “Well, you look very… Portland now.” Not a compliment, either. I was wearing high-waisted vintage Levi’s, an oversized blazer from a thrift store, my beloved Doc Martens that I’d been saving up babysitting money for months to purchase, and a canvas tote bag covered in enamel pins. I wore that outfit to grab coffee in Portland and no one bats an eye.
In Eugene, it was like I’d rolled into town wearing a sign that read “I LEFT FOR THE BIG CITY AND NOW I DRINK LATTES MADE WITH OAT MILK.” I stood on the Eugene train station platform, blinking up at my mum who was judging me from afar for wearing my apparently blatant Portland tourist outfit when it occurred to me ; we all have our own regional dialects of fashion. Like how my mum couldn’t pronounce googol when I was younger and thought I said railroad (true story). We were speaking the same language but the nuances were so different you didn’t even realise it at first glance.
Living and working in the Pacific Northwest has taught me this weird subconscious ability to identify where someone’s from by their clothes. It’s been even more apparent as I travel all around Oregon and Washington for work and visiting friends living in Seattle, Eugene, little corners of Oregon I didn’t even know existed.
I’ve slowly picked up this mental quirkiestadriftregionsmap of how dressing varies from city to city: Portland: : Everyone dresses like they just rolled out of bed, but also spent way too much money doing it.
Ok, gonna dive right in because Portland, you’re the reason I started this trendspotting blog in the first place.
Full disclosure: I live in Portland and I’m biased. The City of Roses is where I’ve chosen to plant roots, so I might be excusing some of its region-specific behaviours and rationalizing things to make it sound like I like living here.
Just FYI. We’re all guilty of it, locals defending their hometown. But there’s something to this ethos that Portland natives live by; dress like you put effort into your outfit, but not *too* much effort.
Be cool, look like you don’t care what you wear but also secretly broke your monthly clothing budget at All Mighty Fine. We all know someone who rolls around Portland wearing oversized vintage that they found at some hole-in-the-wall vintage shop down Everett that only select few Portlanders know about. Everyone in Portland owns a vintage band tee they swear is “so unique” even though Fishermen’s Village has literally every band printed on a shirt.
Vintage is not unique anymore in Portland – it’s expected. But the chic Portland setter has deciphered this secret formula to making thrift store clothes look high end, so nobody bats an eye when you drop $40 on a vintage band tee at Re-Cylclery because, well, hello, amazing Yelp reviews. Everyone in Portland walks like they’re about to run to their next adventure, which is probably cycling related.
We live in a bike city, after all. And our wardrobe has to be ready for any adventure at a moment’s notice, whether we’re actually cycling or not. Flannel shirts, boots, jackets with lots of pockets, clothes you can layer depending onPortland’s clown-car-of-a-weather situation.
My friend Charlie moved here from Texas and was flabbergasted by how everyone wore stylish outfits suitable for bicycling even when they drove to their destination. “Why do they think I’m going to bike?” he asked me over coffee once, while we waited for our non-biking friends to arrive. And then we laughed because DUDE WE LIVE IN PORTLAND. But the unspoken Portland uniform ties all these random trends together; we’re all deeply aware that our outfit is making a statement about who we are as people.
Are we buying local? Did we thrift this? Stop and ask yourself every time you walk into Everlane how fast are those clothes actually made?
Our clothes have become personal statements on where we stand with the whole fast fashion isn’t morally ethical debate. “I feel like everyone in Portland judges you if you buy your clothes new!” my friend Lauren wailed to me over drinks last week. She moved here from Memphis a few years ago and is still having some troubles wrapping her mind around Portlandie logic. “Literally everyone asks me where I got something and I’m just like ugh, TARGET? !” She’s not wrong. I’ve felt self-conscious wearing things from H&M to the wrong Portland social gatherings, myself.
Seattle :: More put together than you realise. Ah, Seattle. Seattle used to just be Portland’s slightly richer sister who always had cooler mums.
These days I think Seattle is stepping on Portland’s schlumpy wannabe bohemian vibes. Whenever I visit my old college friend Sierra in Seattle I find myself noticing how much…nicer everyone looks? Don’t get me wrong, Seattle is full of it’s very own hipster-types lurking around every bookshop and indie coffee shop corner.
But there’s less of an angst-y Portland I rolled out of bed for brunch vibe going on in Seattle and more put together your outfit but could still totally bicycle kind of vibe. Sierra laughed when I told her my theory of “Seattle has better fashion than Portland.” “We don’t spend all our time fussing about the ‘authenticity’ of our vintage shirts,” she said. I’ll give her that.
Something about Silicon Valley crawling its way north makes Seattle dress a little more.. affluent? Wealthy? I don’t want to sound like I’m jealously typing this from my landlord-owned flat in downtown PDX, but there’s more upscale clothing in Seattle that people actually buy new rather than spent three years trying to find online.
I also think the rainy weather pushes people toward actually investing in high quality rain jackets that keep you dry vs Portland’s honour-system vintage denim jacket that gives off major tourist vibes when the splash zones come out. And Portland will never beat Seattle drunk restaurant culture, which is half the reason we wear what we do here. Everyone dresses like they’re headed to their next fancy bar in Seattle, even if they’re just grabbing pizza.
Eugene :: Portland five years ago, but friendlier. Portland trends hit Eugene eventually, they just take a few extra months driving down I-5 to get here. Basically anytime you think Portland’s adopted a new aesthetic, Eugene will embrace that same look about five years later.
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That ridiculous cottagecore trend that took over Portland dressers last spring? Birthing baths overloaded with juniper berries and wildflowers are just starting to hit Eugene cafes. Thank god that trend died down before I moved home again.
I swear someone built Eugene specifically to take extra good care of us when we come back home to visit. Between how inexpensively everything is here compared to Portland and how small it feels to be back in town, I can let my guard down in Eugene. It’s like this comfy jumper that Portland tried to become but failed.
Back when I still wore actual jumpers in Eugene. Everyone dresses way more comfortably when they’re home. Who cares if your jumper has a hole in it when your grandma sewed it for you?
Why feel bad about buying new clothes when your local shopping doesn’t make or break the Eugene economy like it does Portland? Outfit anxiety melts away when you slide back into your cozy childhood bedsheets. Small Oregon towns: : We’ve seen your Patagonia shirt, and know you wore it yesterday too.
This applies to small Oregon towns across the board but I’ve perfected this looking-at-strangers-that-I’ll-never-meet-in-public fashion game while visiting friends in small corners of Oregon I didn’t know existed. Hood River, where I was married last summer? Basically everyone works for REI and wears that as their uniform.
I’ve never seen so many people rocking the same brand of jeans and jacket and actually looking cute doing it. It’s very “Hey guys! I could hike up Mount Hood after this brunch if I felt like it!” Meanwhile, I’ll just be over here double-fisting my mimosa and questioning why I lived here for a year in college.
It’s a vibe. Vancouver, WA :: Are we Portland? Do we work for Microsoft?
Okay, Vancouver WA is maybe cheating because it’s basically Portland’s suburb- hell, a good chunk of Vancouver commute into Portland for work. But did you know there’s a whole other city RIGHT ACROSS THE RIVER that might as well be Portland? It gets mistaken for Portland so often its own postal zone is sometimes labelled “Portland, WA.” Wild.
So Vancouver walks this super fine line of being close enough to Portland that it gets many of our eccentricities, but also is vain enough to try to create its own identity? Say what you want about Vancouver’s obsession with being “its own city” but they do have some pretty strong opinions about not being Portland WHICH MEANS THEY CONSTANTLY COMPARE THEMSELVES TO US. I’ll admit, I’ve had my graphic design clients in Vancouver question what I should wear when I meet with them.
Dress Portland-y? Dress like I’d go into Portland to meet them? UGH I JUST WANT TO WORK IN PEACE.
Honestly, what I find most interesting about the style differences within the Pacific Northwest is maybe I’m not that good at people watching anymore? I lived in downtown Portland for two years and pretty much could tell you where anyone who walked past me was from based off their outfit within the first five seconds. Portland transplants stick out like a sore thumb here in Eugene.
They’re the ones wearing so-preciously-curated-it hurts outfits to pour over at the local coffee shop. I can spot out-of-towners from Seattle at the airport blindly walking into taxi lines before they’ve learned our how laid back it is to bike or Uber here. Maybe your eyes aren’t glazing over and I’m wrong and you think this is fascinating too?
Think about how many times you’ve travelled from Portland to Seattle or to Boise and notice how immediately you can spot the difference in what “normal” everyday clothes are. Something about the way Seattle leans harder into tech salaries and Portland fetishizes secondhand clothes?
Or how Seattle might mock Portland for being too trashy with our attitudes but secretly loves wearing their Birkenstocks andshopping at Homegoods just as much?
Everyone in Boise is wearing leggings as trousers but we’re too cool to acknowledge it.
Wherever you go in this region, there’s a difference. And I love it.
This pandemic has definitely blurred some of our regional lines – we’re all wearing sweats more than we ever used to, ordering clothes online more than buying from locally owned shops, wearing popular clothes from TikTok trends that extend beyond state borders. But I’d argue that while our overall styles may have shifted into the comfort clothing phase, our regional differences are more present than ever. Think about how you dress when you’re home versus other places – I know I wear way more casually when I visit Eugene because I know absolutely no one is going to judge me for what I wear.
I don’t have to dress for a Portland audience full of nuevo residents who I want to make a good impression on. I’m just dressing for my parents and immediate circle of lifelong friends who have never questioned my life decisions …until right now, mum. What’s your Regional Style Say About You?Let’s chat!
Tell me about your regional style story in the comments below. Are you team Eugene or do you stand by Portland? Are Seattleites really richer than us or am I letting my urban Portland bias talk?
Discuss.
