Number Nine’s Autumn/Winter 2008 collection was a love letter written in flannel and wool, addressed to a city that never shouts. Titled My Own Private Portland, it draws from the phrase My Own Private Idaho, a saying often interpreted as being in one’s own imaginary world of solitude and longing. Popularized by Gus Van Sant’s 1991 film of the same name, the phrase came to describe a fragile space between detachment and the desire for belonging.

Takahiro Miyashita transformed that state of mind into a real place. Portland carried the quiet residue of the American Northwest: the soft patter of rain, the scent of wood and denim, the sound of guitars that never tried too hard to be heard. Once a neighboring hub to Seattle’s grunge movement, the city represented a more introspective form of rebellion. It was where self-expression turned inward. For Miyashita, Portland became an emotional landscape, a vision of the America he had long romanticized.

The show itself unfolded like a diary. Guests were handed Pendleton blankets woven in Portland, a nod to the city’s textile heritage. A soft voicemail recording opened the presentation, its tone intimate and unguarded. The venue, a dim garage-like space in Paris, stripped away grandeur and replaced it with sincerity. References to Ace Hotel’s timber and wool interiors surfaced throughout, blending hospitality, warmth, and nostalgia into a single atmosphere. Everything felt personal, as if the audience had stumbled into Miyashita’s own imagined America.

This beautiful varsity jacket from look 23 features an aggressively oversized ribbed donkey collar, a recurring motif throughout the season. Constructed in heavy melton wool with contrasting leather sleeves, the piece includes dual zippers and reinforced ribbing at the cuffs and hem.

Tagged Size 2, fits M-L