High heels with retro flames bursting from the back of the shoes, à la Katy Perry. Coral-pink silk pajamas with jewels on the collar. A blue velvet evening suit, including a ruffled dress shirt, a patterned pocket square and a polka-dot bow tie.

These items, along with dozens of other designer garments, vintage photographs of style icons and stunning advertisements from fashion houses, populate the Portland Art Museum's newest exhibition. "Italian Style: Fashion since 1945" debuts Saturday, Feb. 7 and runs until May 3.

The show is the first of its kind for the Portland museum, which has never before hosted a fashion collection. However, "Italian Style" is the museum's fourth design-themed show, and part of an increasing effort by museum director Brian Ferriso to highlight design collections.

"We've been thinking about design and decorative arts," he said. "This includes design in the everyday: cars, posters, clothing, fashion, bikes. We're building off what MOMA did with the design component."

Eventually, Ferriso and his colleagues hope to develop a design department. For now, the idea is in its beginning stages, and Ferriso is counting on the Italian fashion exhibit to build momentum, audience and excitement for the new department.

It may do just that. The show was created by Sonnet Stanfill, curator of 20th century and contemporary fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It was unveiled at the British museum last April, and was featured in Minneapolis before making its way to Portland, its only stop on the West Coast.

Though Los Angeles might seem like a more logical city to play host to a fashion exhibition than Portland, Ferriso pointed out components of the collection that dovetail nicely with Portland culture: Both Italian designers and Portlanders place great importance in crafting objects by hand, and both value simplicity and functionality.

"Italians think deeply about how fashions actually work," he said.

Italian-inspired, Portland-made

Adam Arnold, a 42-year-old designer based in Southeast Portland, contributed a pair of suit ensembles to the show.

Anna Marum/The Oregonian

The exhibition also features a handful of Italian-inspired pieces by Portland designers. Adam Arnold, a 42-year-old designer based in Southeast Portland, contributed a pair of suit ensembles inspired by designer Walter Albini, known for his 1920s and 1930s revival pieces in the '70s.

Arnold, who exclusively creates made-to-measure clothing for his Portland clients, said the museum asked him to contribute pieces with an emphasis on tailoring. So, with Albini in mind, he created two suits: one for a man and one for a woman. The men's suit is draped with a patterned coat with a slightly feminine shape, and the women's suit dips in softly at the midsection, accentuating the waist.

"I wanted a certain softness, but structure," he explained.

Arnold said he is honored to be included in the show, which couldn't have come at a better time.

"I feel like the fashion industry in Portland is past its infancy stage, and it's like, 'What's next?'" he said. "People are moving to Portland to work in fashion now, and this show unites Portland designers with a larger, more international community."

For Stanfill, "Italian Style" has been about five years in the making. In addition to the roughly 170-piece collection, she also created a nearly 300-page coffee table book. It features photos of several pieces in the show, but includes hundreds more, plus commentary from journalists and fashion experts.

"It's a kind of greatest hits featured in the exhibition," she said.

At its core, it tells the story of how Italian fashion established itself, and how America played role in the growth of the industry, she said.

"People think fashion is frivolous, but it has a much wider, deeper meaning," Stanfill said.

After World War II, under the Marshall plan, the U.S. gave $17 billion (about $160 billion in 2014 dollars) to European countries to help rebuild their economies. The U.S. also helped Italy use fashion as a way to rebrand itself after its slip into fascism. A portion of the aid money went directly to the country's struggling textiles industry, and the earliest fashion houses were born.

"Italian Style" covers nearly the last 70 years, but it also looks ahead to the future of fashion. She made sure to include commentary on the subject from those ensconced in the industry, some of whom acknowledged the need for fresh blood and new talent to reinvigorate Italian fashion and sustain its dominance.

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"If Italy - Milan, really - is going to remain relevant, it has to take a step back and consider that they need to be promoting fresh talents and young blood," she said.

But Stanfill acknowledges that the consumer, perhaps more than the designer, will shape the fashion industry in the years to come. The middle class in China and other emerging markets will play a big part, she predicted.

Meanwhile, fashion has become more localized, with many cities - Portland included - hosting their own fashion weeks. This erodes the primacy of fashion capitals like Paris and Milan while creating new fashion hubs, she said.

Though she hadn't been in Portland long, Stanfill said she sees a kinship between London and Portland fashions.

"It's interesting coming from London," she said. "There's an urban edge or rawness that pervades the wardrobes. I think Portland might be a soulmate of the London street style in that way. It's not a kind of conventional glamour."

But the one thing that struck Stanfill the most since she flew into PDX?

"I've seen a lot of kayaks on top of cars."

Iconic fashion designs are set to go on permanent display at National Museums Scotland.

The Chambers Street venue will exhibit highlights from its rarely seen fashion collection, believed to be one of the world’s most extensive.

The items include striking designs by Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Zandra Rhodes.

Around 70 mannequins and up to 150 exhibits will feature in the new gallery, which is one of ten to open next year.

The £14.1 million project is the third phase of an £80 million overhaul of the museum.

James Robinson, keeper of art and design at the museum, said: “Fashion is definitely going to be our big reveal. Many of our visitors would be forgiven for not knowing that we’ve got one of the world’s outstanding fashion collections.”

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The museum has more than 50,000 fashion items, dating from the 16th century to present day.

These include 17th century English embroidery and early Italian silks.

The displays will be regularly “refreshed”, and the gallery will also explore the influences of modern-day designers and the issues affecting the industry.

13 months ago Anderson Silva suffered one of the most gruesome injuries the UFC, or any sport for that matter, had ever seen. Most believed his career was finished as his ankle was shattered and his age was heading for the wrong side of 40. But the greatest fighter of all time was not to be stopped.

Silva went back to Brazil, and though contemplated calling it a career, he opted to take this fight with Nick Diaz.

The fight was anything but vintage Anderson Silva. There were the occasional flurries of activity that conjured up the memories but in the end he appeared to be in the cage seeking one goal, a victory, no matter how he could get it.

Diaz was actually the cockier of the fighters including one moment in which he voluntarily fell to the ground and struck a pose.

But in the end, there was no debate from any bipartisan viewer as to who deserved the win.

Silva caught Diaz many times with jabs and Diaz responded with the occasional strike to the head of the Spider. However, the fight was easy to call as Diaz spent the majority backing up and/or running his mouth.

It appeared Diaz believed he won the fight, or at worst thought it was relatively close. The scorecards disagreed though as Silva took down the unanimous decision 50-45, 50-45, 49-46.

The question now is on the future of the UFC’s most decorated star. During his post fight interview Anderson Silva made a few comments about where he may be this time next year.

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Silva said his children have been begging him to give it up and stay home with them in Brazil, something they did after the injury as well. Silva seemed conflicted.

On one hand, this is a man who loves the sport, who loves to fight, and who clearly wanted to continue building on his incredible resume. On the other, his tone and his post fight actions may have been telling as to the opposite.

Silva cried tears of joy after he was declared victorious. His post fight prayer was especially long, and the customary bow as he left the cage felt like the black screen at the end of the Sopranos.

Only time will tell which side of The Spider’s brain wins out, but in the meantime it was an absolute gift to the MMA world that he was able to once again enter the octagon and come out on top. Even if he didn’t deliver it in the majestic Spider way.

An invite to a recent Twelfth Night Gala in Pittsburgh had an unusual theme — the 300th anniversary of the death of Louis XIV — and an equally unorthodox dress code: funereal cocktail chic.

Funeral fashions? That might sound strange, or even morbid. But centuries ago it was a very real — and sometimes very controversial — thing, and its impact still reaches to runways and clothing racks today.

“Mourning dress had a lasting influence on high fashion,” says Jessica Regan, an assistant curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. “The prevalence of all-black fashionable mourning attire during the 19th century, which often was described as very becoming, paved the way for the increased use of black in ordinary fashion.”

What women wore to funerals from about 1815 to 1915 is the subject of an exhibit at the museum’s Anna Wintour Costume Center gallery. “Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire” which ends Feb. 1, was the first fall exhibit the Costume Institute has held in seven years.

Initially, curators thought about doing an exhibit about the evolution of the black dress during that time period but instead opted to make mourning attire the focus to highlight “the intersection between fashion and rituals of bereavement,” Regan says.

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Most of the pieces on display are part of the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, while others are on loan. At auction, the museum purchased gowns worn by Queen Alexandra and Queen Victoria. When the Brooklyn Museum’s costume institute was transferred a few years ago to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it acquired more examples of mourning dresses, Regan says.

As with fashion today, the styles were subjective. What people wore back then to grieve — particularly women — was scrutinized.

“During the 19th century, mourning garments became increasingly aligned with fashionable dress, in terms of the silhouette, the cut of the garments and in some cases even the modes of embellishment,” Regan says. “Some women viewed overly fashionable mourning attire as ostentatious and incompatible with a period of grief, preferring simple garments that merely followed the outlines of fashion, while others chose garments that display all the exuberant details of high fashion.”

The expectations for men in mourning, however, were not as elaborate. Because dark suits already were a staple of their wardrobes, what they wore while grieving didn’t vary too much.

“A deep black band around his hat and black gloves would be considered a sufficient acknowledgment of a loss,” Regan says.

“Visitors are often struck first by the beauty of the objects and are surprised by the extent to which they follow the details of high fashion,” Regan says. “Many people have lamented the fact that today there is no way to visibly identify oneself as a mourner.”

There’s so much fashion going on in the world right now. Between the jam-packed men’s circuit and the Hollywood awards season, it can be hard to keep up. In case you’ve fallen behind, here is a cheat sheet on the best of what went down at this week’s Berlin Fashion Week Fall 2015.

The Recap

On day one, androgyny prevailed and designers blurred the lines between the sexes. Day two saw fairy-tale-inspired collections from Lala Berlin and Rebekka Ruétz. And Day three, according to Style.com reporter Ana Finel Honigman, was a “veritable symposium on the power of prints.”

The Street Style

Photographer Søren Jepsen proved that the men’s shows in Milan and Paris weren’t the only places where you could find some amazing street style this week. Check out the Berlin Fashion Week Street Style gallery for proof.

The Highlights

Augustin Teboul’s unique men’s and women’s collection was full of goth-inspired rock-and-roll vibes.

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Mixed prints and bold primary colors made Kilian Kerner’s runway one of the week’s most memorable.

Paper London kicked off with a quintet of strong white looks. 

Marina Hoermanseder worked as an apprentice for Alexander McQueen, and it showed in the craftsmanship of her subtly sexy, luxurious collection.