It's been a tough time for local retail: we lost so many beloved stores in the past two years as business shuttered and foot traffic fell. But so many plucky Portlanders also used the time to realize their retail dreams, and found ways to bring everything from queer passion projects to social justice conversation starters to shoot-from-the-hip greeting cards to a glorious space near you. These exquisite additions to our city will furnish you with all you need for the holiday season and beyond. Shop local!  

OURStore & Danamor

The always amazing 811 E Burnside boasts two fresh additions. It’s not hard to get lured into Sydney Wessling and Daniella Carracci’s appropriately named and vintage-focused OURStore (Suite 113). The shop, which began life as a vendor booth at Hollywood Vintage, is a colorful ’60s- and ’70s-inspired space carefully curated to make sure you don’t get lost in the slew of nostalgia. Beyond the rich knit sweaters, vintage T-shirts, and boots, OurStore’s shelves are stocked with fruit-covered glassware, jewelry, and old Portland felt pennants that make for a thoroughly “remember when?!” experience. Head to the very back of the shop for vintage lingerie and  a serious boudoir vibe.

Dan Melton’s menswear shop Danamor (Suite 115) is not only a passion project but a celebration of the queer community. A software engineer by day, Melton opens Danamor’s doors once a week (and by appointment). Inside, he creates—his studio is just behind a curtain—and sells body-hugging shirts made of buttery soft knits for daywear, while dancewear items with crazy, colorful prints and mesh pop off the store’s black walls and  glitter under the lights. 811 E Burnside St —Dalila Thomas Brent

Mimi’s Fresh Tees

Northeast Portlander Kamelah Adams launched Mimi’s Fresh Tees back in 2018 to help young Black students and other students of color spark social-justice based conversations in their schools. Tees with phrases like “Make Racism Wrong Again” and “Black History Didn’t Start with Slavery” have been emblazoning Portlanders’ chests since then, becoming a common sight at Black Lives Matter protests over the past 18 months. Her “Love Over Hate″ shirts even made it onto the field at Providence Park, donned pregame by the Portland Thorns. From tees to hoodies to beanies to yoga apparel, Mimi’s encourages Portlanders to “Wear Your Truth.” Last June, Adams opened a brick-and-mortar space in Old Town and after a temporary closure due to ongoing racist threats, Mimi’s is back. And the shop is hosting a holiday collective, with Tan Tan Foods’ sauces, A Stone’s Throw jewelry, and more joining the tees and totes. 222 NW Davis Street —Jenni Moore & Fiona McCann

Modern Provisions

In another life, Benjamin Page was fixing up and selling homes in Los Angeles, filling showrooms with furniture and other goods salvaged over two decades from flea markets and estate sales in California, Page’s birthplace of Taiwan, and elsewhere. Then, one day, a thief broke into one such house and made off with a good chunk of his collection. “That’s how I knew it was actually worth something,” jokes Page. He persisted, though, and in 2019 moved full-time to Portland, where he now sells his vintage and sustainable artisan goods and houseplants at Modern Provisions, a brightly lit boutique tucked away in South Tabor. A designer by trade, Page has a knack for marrying midcentury-modern charm with organic, natural elements. Butter-yellow fondue pots, cornflower-blue suede rugs, and cream ceramic candles make their home next to the irresistible funkiness of starfish butter knives, hand-carved jade, and tiki wine decanters. And don’t sleep on the lush potted plants and succulents bringing some next-level vibrancy to the tastefully
curated space. 2914 SE 52nd Ave —Karly Quadros

Revive Athletics

In a spot on NE Alberta once frequented for French toast and salmon hash, you’ll now find athletic wear from Nike, Adidas, Patagonia, Athleta, and more— all secondhand and curated by owner Laura Halley, who gave up her corporate 9-to-5 to open Revive on the corner formerly occupied by Helser’s. Her impetus? “Not only is fashion bad for the environment with the way that it’s produced, but athletic wear in particular is also really expensive,” she says. “I wanted a place where people could come to find high-quality secondhand athletic wear at a great price.” What began online is now a thriving brick-and-mortar, with Halley buying used athletic wear outright for resale and also offering the space for classes—pure barre, shuffle dance, weight strength, and more. 1538 NE Alberta St —FM

Dogwood

This just-off-NE Alberta store sees owners and married couple Brant Ozanich and Gabriella “Gabby” Terracciano fusing their love of wine and flowers by offering locally grown bouquets and small- production bottles in the same space. Both former San Francisco residents, Ozanich is a sommelier and Terracciano a florist, having studied their respective fields in France. They opened Dogwood in May 2021 in the former home of Bristlecone Vintage, creating a light-filled room with a wall of flower power facing off against an impressive bottle collection opposite. For her wild and whimsical arrangements, Terracciano tries to get flowers from local and women-owned flower farms, while Ozanich will pull wine from Europe as well as from Oregon winemakers that showcase promising grape varieties like gamay noir and Grüner Veltliner. Keep an eye out for shop dog Otis, who makes regular appearances, though customers’
canine companions might be relegated to patio seating. 4932 NE 30th Ave —JM

Good Dog PDX

Portland native Eric Lilley opened the excellently curated Good Dog PDX in August 2020 on a particularly dog-friendly block in the Buckman neighborhood—right across the street from the dog park at Revolution Hall and near a clutch of dog-friendly eateries. As the extensive display inside of doggie Polaroids makes clear, this store is puppy central: think bully sticks, healthy dog food, collars, leashes, and safe chew toys for all life stages. Feline friends are not entirely ostracized, though; there is a “Kitty Corner” with cat supplies available, though it’s pretty clear where the store stands on the great cat-dog divide. Add to that an indoor dog park, “Good Dog Park”—which can be reserved for private pup parties for $20–30 but also offers play sessions for $6 per dog during select hours—and you can see why dogs might be dragging their humans to this Southeast spot. Good Dog Park also hosts training sessions, puppy socials, and more led by trainers from local companies Plucky Puppy and Noble Woof. Watch out for a second location set to open in Slabtown early next year. 1411 SE Stark St —JM

SymbiOp

This newly minted Southeast space—festooned with a colorful exterior mural bearing the words For People and Planet in big, bold letters across the top—is an offshoot of a two-year-old restorative landscaping business. Inspiration for opening the store came in part from the landscapers’ own struggle finding one place to source native plants for jobs. Now, the building once home to Naomi’s Farm Supply has one of the largest native plant selections in Portland. In addition to those native offerings, such as Pacific wax myrtle, red-flowering currant, and snowberry—which are housed outside— SymbiOp boasts a generous selection of edible plants, including garlic starts, berries, and fruit trees. Inside, a wide selection of goods from local BIPOC and queer artisans rubs shoulders with the houseplants, soil, and supplies, among them Onya’e Naturals candles and Scrapberry Farm oils. Need more excuses to visit? SymbiOp’s owners—JT Yu, Nutmeg Minneboo, Matt Grave, and Lotus Romey-Yu—incorporated as a cooperative to allow workers to have a voice in company operations. 3454 SE Powell Blvd —DTB

Paper Epiphanies

Across the black and white retro tile of Paper Epiphanies is the you-can’t-miss-it neon pink frame for a wall of greeting cards that could easily ensnare you in hours of laugh-out-loud perusal: “I appreciate you! Even more than Spanx,” “Well this blows,” and “Fuck last year. Happy Birthday!” are just a few choice examples of finely designed, shoot-from-the-hip cards. They’re all on display at the femme-forward flagship store of Paper Epiphanies, a card company founded by onetime LA denizen Victoria Venturi. The cards—handmade in-house on vintage German letterpresses originally made by men for men to use, Venturi points out, and now used by women to empower women—are a major feature. They share the space with coffee-table books—101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest, and Great Women Artists among them—candles, adult toys (four different kinds of vibrators) and all the journaling supplies you might need. Venturi says empowering women is at the heart of it all. “So much of our brand is about encouraging women to just live their true lives,” she says. “Femininity shouldn’t be defined by one certain thing.” Or as one of her greeting cards would have it: “Fearless women rule the world.” 2501 SE Clinton St —Cami Hughes

Vein of Gold

Rebekah Bellingham began Vein of Gold as a T-shirt business, and still makes the boxy, organic cotton shirts today—they’re among the goodies to be found at Vein of Gold on N Interstate, which took over the space formerly occupied by neighborhood favorite Button and offers quality consignment clothes for both men and women—Simone Rocha shoes to a Kenzo skirt to a Pendleton poncho, to name a few recent finds. Bellingham also donates 5 percent of one of her T-shirt’s sales to a different nonprofit each year. 6517 N Interstate Ave —JM