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."