Sunday, August 24, 2008

Xtabay Announces Shopping Parties!

We are happy to announce that the Xtabay is now accepting reservations for evening shopping parties!

Gather up a few of your friends and come down to the store after hours to shop for a special occasion, or just to have a glass of wine and have fun while you put together a few outfits for fall. Shopping parties are great for moms who are too busy during the day to shop, or for wedding parties, or really any time you want to catch up with friends and have a good time while doing it.

Best of all, the shopping parties are free. Plus, we'll give parties of six or more people 15% off their purchases!

Call the Xtabay at 503-230-2899 for more info or to make a reservation.

Vintage Fashion Dispatch from Billings, Montana

Deciding what to wear on vacation isn't always easy. For instance, what do you pack to take to Paris or New York City so you don't feel like a rube? (I've traveled to both places with contemporary clothes and vintage, and it was always in vintage that I felt the most stylish, the most like me.)

Urban dressing is one thing, but what about the high prairie of Montana? What about the land of snap Western shirts and Walmart togs? Here again, I packed vintage, and it was perfect.

Every morning in Montana, I got up early, put a cotton, floral 1930s dressing gown over my peach 1940s rayon slip, and sat on the back porch with a cup of coffee while I watched my father feed and water the horses. The dogs ran in the pasture and chased prairie dogs.

I went to the Billings farmers market and to the Muzzleloader for breakfast in 1950s cotton day dresses. I went shooting clay pigeons while wearing a denim skirt and a sleeveless 1960s blouse. A 1960s green and white dress with a ruffled collar and hem was cool and fresh at the Montana Fair.

The big test: Would vintage fly for a night of dancing at Montana Chad's? The friend I traveled with tried to convince me to forgo the black 1950s cotton dress with a tight bodice and velvet trim for a denim skirt and cowboy boots. I wore the vintage dress anyway and had men coming up to me all night admiring my dress and asking to dance. One farmer from South Dakota, in town for the stock car races, gestured toward the dance floor and said, "I've got to dress with a woman in a dress like that!" (Most of the other women wore jeans and tank tops, while most of the men wore western shirts and jeans with tooled leather belts. A few had on cowboy hats.)

The moral of the story is to pack vintage. You won't be sorry. Come in to the Xtabay with your itinerary and we'll set you up.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Xtabay New Flashes

Here's a roundup of the latest Xtabay news:

First, we're pleased to announce that Joanne will be working at the store on Fridays. She's gorgeous and charming and has a great eye for style. Come in and see what she can pull together for you to try.

Next, Xtabay is bringing back its men's department! We have a nice selection of dress shirts, and Liz is on the lookout for more. We encourage men--especially handsome, single men--to come by and see what we have.

O.K., this is big news: the Xtabay has air conditioning! Right now it's in the triple digits outside, but we are fresh and cool indoors.

Last bit of news: Tonight--Saturday the 16th, at 7:30 pm--is Xtabay's 7th birthday party. Come by for cupcakes, live music, and 25% off anything you buy!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Best Kept Secret in Portland

The Willamette Week and Portland Monthly "Best of" issues are out again, and guess what? Neither of them lists the Xtabay. Well, that's all right. Xtabay will just have to be our secret.

Of course, it's also photographer William Wegman's secret. He came to the Xtabay when we wanted to buy Pendleton shirts to dress his weineramers for a photo shoot.

And it's actress Tilda Swinton's secret. She likes the clip-on earrings we sell.

We're Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore's secret, too. (We'd welcome them back any time, even if they are a little messy in the dressing room.)

Clothing Designer and Vogue "It Girl" Erin Featherston has made a few trips to the Xtabay--all the way from New York. I guess we're her secret.

As for the rest of you--chic women in the neighborhood, members of bands named after I-5 off ramps or pastel cocktails, women who make regular pilgrimages from the West Hills, local musicians, artists, "frugalistas", the full gamut of Xtabay shoppers: shhh. When people ask you where you bought that fabulous Lilly Pulitzer sundress or 1940s gabardine suit, just whisper, "I got it at the Xtabay, but don't tell anyone."