Fashion and art in Chicago: The threads that bind BY MARY DE YOE On May 3 in Millennium Park, the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) will present THE WALK. This 79 year-old fashion show and benefit will present, on the catwalk, the latest designs by SAIC students, and, in the audience, Chicago’s best dressed. Chicago is known for many things, but as a fashion capital it is still not quite New York or L.A. Quoted recently in Crains’ Chicago Business, Greg Cameron, Chief Operating Officer of WTTW and SAIC Fashion Committee member for 10 years said of THE WALK, “It’s one of the most exciting events of the year….[The Gala guests] are beautiful and glamorous— it’s when you see a little bit of New York in Chicago.” He meant it as a compliment, of course, but is it really fair to continuously view Chicago only in so far as it relates to New York, when it in fact does stand on its own? Chicago’s fashion and art worlds may not have the resources or market presence that cities like L.A. and New York do, but what they lack in manufacturers or collectors they make up for in ingenuity and creativity. There is nothing revolutionary in saying that art and fashion are inextricably linked—they are derived from the same impulse to express oneself or an idea visually. But in Chicago the two worlds, perhaps out of necessity, often act in tandem and bolster one another.
SAIC Senior Kylee Alexander joins models showcasing her designs on the runway at THE WALK 2012 fashion benefit gala. Photo by Sara Condo
everything at RSVP is a conversation starter. “We need places like this,” said Pope, “places that blur the lines between art, fashion, and lifestyle. The more places we have like this, the more people will choose to stay.”
Ikram Goldman, owner of the luxury boutique in River North that bears her name and Chicago’s doyenne of fashion, is another great supporter of Chicago’s art scene. When “It is difficult to keep talent in Chicago,” said Goldman, in 2011, moved her boutique to its Cheryl Pope, SAIC Faculty in the Fashion, new location on East Huron—a literal beacon Contemporary Practices, and Continuing for fashion with its bright red facade—she Studies Departments. Pope also received a incorporated an art gallery. Showing work by Masters in Fashion from SAIC in 2010. “The Chicago artists, the exhibitions rotate resources and materials just aren’t here. I throughout the year. Past exhibitions featured often tell students that they need to take trips work by graphic designer Jason Pickleman, to New York to buy fabric. With fabric stores and drew on similarities between the processlike Mood, they are really able to see what’s es of fashion designers and of artists. About available.” That said, while Pope encourages his exhibition, Typeballs, Pickleman said, “I students to leave the city for fabric, she does love tearing apart letters and making new not encourage them to relocate. “In Chicago forms. I think the way I’m handling language [with affordable rents] you can find amazing is similar to the way some fashion designers, studio space. To have the space to work is such as Rei Kawakubo at Comme des invaluable,” said Pope. She added that, Garçons, handle hems and seams—tearing “Chicago is hungry for a shift.” them apart, cutting at odd angles and letting threads hang loose, all in an effort to create RSVP Gallery in Bucktown is helping to new images with new meanings.” pave that way. Part high-end boutique, part art gallery, RSVP offers visitors more than a When at Ikram, as is the case at RSVP, you shopping experience. A highly-curated and are not just shopping. You’re engaged in a very “cool” selection of luxury items like a 3.1 discourse about visual culture (whether Philip Lim rabbit fur iPad case in “absinthe you’re aware of it or not.) green” or a hoodie with a print inspired by engines and cables by London-based designer Christopher Kane set the tone for the unique space. Whether it’s your taste or not, nearly 22
It is important to have people who support these art forms, and who are working in Chicago. Nick Cave, whose celebrated Soundsuits blur the lines of fashion, sculpture, and performance, is a fantastic example of Chicago’s ability to push the envelop in the field. A professor at SAIC, Cave has lived and worked in Chicago since 1990. Additionally, the Chicago-based design duo “Creatures of the Wind” was a 2011 Finalist for CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. The pair continues to work in Chicago, and it is their success (both of the designers, Shane Gabier and Chris Peters, are SAIC graduates) as well as Cave’s success and presence that will encourage other designers to work from Chicago as well. “You still have designers working in Chicago,” said Pope, “who are thinking ‘am I designing for an East Coast market? A West Coast market? Or a European market?’” In other words, the “Chicago market,” while it does exist to some degree, is not large enough to fully support fashion designers. “We need manufacturing companies that support [designers]. Once you build that, they will come,” Goldman said in a recent interview in Michigan Avenue. In the past decade, several resources have popped up that indicate an interest in making Chicago a greater home for fashion. These include Chicago’s Fashion’s Night Out, October Fashion Focus, and The Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI). CFI, located in