Vinideus Wine Shop is located in Northeast Portland’s Beaumont Wilshire Neighborhood.  My sense is that Vinideus was set up to serve the immediate neighborhood, ex-pats from France and Americans who love France.

In attempting to create a French styled wine bar, there is a level of authenticity that may only be attainable from being French.  The decor is simple and warm, decorated by racks of wine, tables, a few couches and a long 10 foot bar whose top which looks like a long cross cut of a giant wine vine. 

On the weekends they always manage to attract great musicians, this past weekend, it was a duo of acoustic upright bass and fiddle.  So you find yourself in Northeast Portland and are looking for a fun escape to South of France without the jet lag, be sure to check out Vinideus and sample some of their private label wines from France and Oregon.

At Popina we have three principal business lines of distribution of our eponymous retro swimwear line. These include a brick and mortar swimsuit store in Northeast Portland, on line swim suit sales and wholesale swimwear sales. As a small business owner, everytime you look to spend money and effort with a new business partner it can be a little nerve wracking whether it is a lawyer, accountant, graphic designer or photographer. At Popina we take photos of 90% of our swimwear line which we use to sell our product on line, for our wholesale catalogue, for in store merchandising and marketing and advertising. With the cost of models and photographers, plus the coordination time to set everything up you want to be sure that everything works out right.

Fashion Photographer, Pete Springer was great to work with. If you are a local designer, boutique owner or someone who needs product shots in Portland, Oregon look no further than Pete. Small Business owners are the hardest working people you will meet, time is precious. Pete has a mobile photo studio he can bring to you. For oru shoot after hours Pete was able to bring a large white screen and lighting to our store, it took Pete about an hour to set up and we got all the shots we needed in two hours. He has very good instincts as a photographer and was consultative as we worked through our shots to make sure they turned out the way we wanted them. Because we have not had a lot of experience with live model photo shoots this was particularly appreciated.

Click for more information on Pete Springer Photography.

It is always fun to discover a fun, well formatted web site with great content. For those of you out there who love retro fashion like I do have some fun exploring ReTRo HouSeWiFe. Self described as “a site for the modern day housewife with household tips, recipes, fashion and a look at the historical housewife”, Retro Housewife offers an extensive chronicle of Retro Fashion and Advice & Tips for domestic goddesses. Explore articles on personal finance, traveling with husbands and a great travel section.

We have been wanting to start a Blog devoted to Retro Swimwear fashion, travel and all things related to recreational swimming for sometime at Popina Swim.  Since we have begun our swimsuit venture we have recieved a lot of questions ranging from being a small business owner to starting a business to the most important questions related to fashion and design.  Thank you for visiting the Retro Swimwear Blog!

Pamela Levenson, Owner/Designer Popina Swim