Window Dressing Portland

Portland, Oregon.  Who'd a'thunk it!The time was the fabulous fifties, and Portland's downtown department store windows were decked out to resemble and promote everything Parisian.  The photographer was Fred Milkie, who worked out of Stewart Street in Seattle.  His phone number was ELliot 8825. WIth window decorations the calibre of Manhattan, Portland outdid itslf with the three-dimensional designs in a number of locations, preserved in a series of 8x10 glossies by Milkie.  Remember back then? - when air travel was fun, when a Trans World Airlines flight to France would be a highlight of the trip?  These windows well illustrate those so-called innocent years  when travel was freer and when legal encumbrances did not lurk everywhere.  The window designers used props, graphics, manikins, and signage in a most creative way, combining art deco and fifties-style design to achieve the eye-popping results.