I’ve had a lot of conversations about destination events lately. FashioNXT is a great example.

Portland has always been better at showing than telling. At making excellent things rather than bragging about them. At exploring the edges and gaps instead of going with the crowd. Zigging where others have zagged. And from time to time, proudly making ridiculous decisions.

Creativity is Portland’s most dependable export. Across the board, it’s the thing we’ve shipped out into the world for decades. Whether or not anyone here thought to take credit for it. The brands often seem to speak for themselves. But not about where they originated, necessarily.

That lack of promotion — that almost utter refusal to own the narrative for Portland — has often had us relying on others to tell the story of this place, the incredible people here, and the products that folks conceive and produce here.

So maybe rather than complaining and trying to change that, maybe just maybe, we go with the momentum and lean into that even more…?

Here’s what I’m getting at… If we’re not good at telling our story, then how do we empower others to share our story…? When you want the rest of the world to truly understand what’s happening in a place — especially a place mired in aggressive humility — it matters far more to have an outsider show up. Let them experience it for themselves. And then go home telling the story. If we’re not going to do it, we need to recruit and impress people who will.

Which had me thinking about FashioNXT, Portland’s official fashion week, running Oct 8–10, 2026, downtown at One Financial Center. It’s the same event that, a decade ago, was nudging Portland to rethink what wearables could be. Tito Chowdhury founded it in 2012, and it’s been doing the unglamorous work of pulling glamorous people toward Portland ever since. Designers, buyers, press. From here and from LA and Texas and up and down the coast.

A couple of alums even made it to Project Runway. And won.

And maybe that’s the whole opportunity. For us. Regardless of our fashion sense. (Speaking mostly for me here.) You see, for a city so thoroughly creative, we can be strangely siloed in pockets of products and pursuits. The designers over here. The tech folks over there. Foodies doing their thing. Film people and shoe people and the music people all in their own separate worlds.

A destination event is one of the few things that has the potential to knock down a wall or two. To cross pollinate. To bring a bunch of diverse creative pursuits into a single weekend. And create an opportunity for random collisions to occur.

And maybe it also provides a glimpse — or maybe even a case study — about what could be again. Like the days of OSCON. Or TechfestNW. Or World Domination Summit. Or XOXO. Events that became destination events. Events that invite people to visit, experience Portland, and return home with tales to tell.

FashioNXT remains an example. I think I’m going to go study it this year. And I invite you to do the same.

For tickets and the full schedule, visit FashioNXT. And if you want to knock a few bucks off, please feel free to use “FNT25410” at checkout.

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