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."