Blackbird
3516 Fremont Pl N547-2524
Moving soon to 5410 22nd Ave NW in Ballard

A few weeks ago I begged my girlfriends to tell me where they shop, as I don't go to many women's boutiques. They came up with a big list of places to visit. One of their favorite women's stores is called Blackbird.

It's also my new favorite men's store. Located in Fremont near the statue of Lenin, next to Mpulse, Blackbird, open since last November, has one of the best collections of brands of any store I've been to in Seattle. So I'm just going to rattle off a bunch of the cool items I saw that day:

Hand printed tees from NY company PVBLIC ($64) with big elephants on them; Corpus jeans with nice low pockets in the back ($152); and a whole line of cool tees ($28) from British skateboard clothing makers Strand Mfg (I bought two: one red with a cheeky ode to a modern inventor, and a second black one with fuzzy dandelion seeds floating across it that says, "I wish for more concrete").

Then there's Ever, the new company by one of Quicksilver's founders. Every single item in this line is so cool, so comfortable, so relaxed looking and feeling. One item, their hoodie ($129), had me drooling. It's distressed looking, but lined with army-surplus-like thermal material, made for sitting at the beach in the evening watching a bonfire. I defy anyone to try it on and not want to purchase it. So. God. Damned. Cool.

I should probably mention that the store is moving to a new, much larger location in Ballard in early summer (5410 22nd Ave NW to be exact). Oh, and they're having a sale right now. Get in there.