Marjorie Skinner has an excellent listing of small independent shops here in Portland in today's Mercury. These shops sell fashion: mens and womens wear, vintage, jewelry & accessories, bridal wear (go, Elizabeth Dye, go!), activewear, swimwear, housewears, baby goods, and shoes.

Some of these shops offer custom clothing; some feature their own in-house line of clothing; some primarily one of a kinds, but most feature the local and independent, which, Darling, there is lots of.

Sadly, she didn't mention my favorite shoe store in the world, Amenity Shoes (3430 NE 41st at Fremont, [503] 282-4555), but hey, I did...