Out of the Way, In the Loop

I’d been putting off the trip I took today for some months now. I’d perused the Greenloop webstore (thegreenloop.com) countless times, but I wanted to physically set foot in the sustainable style store before coming to any conclusions. However, being entirely reliant on public transportation, I balked when the Trimet website indicated that I would have to transfer three times to arrive at the store’s front door after almost an hour of transit. Then, a few days ago, I finally made one attempt to get there that left me stranded me roadside at the wrong stop amidst boarded up storefronts and smut shops of non-sidewalked suburbia with the skies raining down on me. Yikes. I just turned around and headed home. But I woke up this morning resolute—I would make use of a potentially lazy Sunday and explore.

Greenloop is relatively new to its new location in the bustling, family-oriented Sellwood neighborhood, where it’s housed in the B.F. Smith House—a late nineteenth-century historic building set back from a street lined with antique shops and cafes. In step with the homey, low-key interior, Greenloop stocks a surprisingly casual look. Perhaps it’s not so surprising—this is, after all, Oregon, home of the home office and telecommuting in pjs. A notable exception was a dreamily soft pair of slacks—regrettably too heavy for summer—by Anna Cohen.












(Leave it to the queen of eco-conscious Italian street couture to knock it up a notch.) Perhaps I have a limited point of comparison, which consists entirely of Arboretum, located in the land of country estates and toney social functions. Greenloop, in contrast, carries loads of practicalities such as tees, sandals, and jeans, and has an extensive menswear section.

As I understand it, Greenloop is the city’s only sustainable fashion design boutique (though individual sustainable designers do have storefronts), which I quite selfishly consider unfortunate, as it is located an hour away from me. But Greenloop’s physical location isn’t of utter importance, it seems, as by far the majority of their sales are through their extensive online store. And even if you can’t stop in with frequency, you can stay in touch via their blog, not too far away at greenloop.blogspot.com.