Chicago’s style reconstruction Style bloggers are a new breed of fashion elite, gaining invitations to the most exclusive events the fashion world has to offer. Creyer says the fame is a product of their accessibility. “If I say a product fit into my life well, people are going to respond to it because I’m a real person,” she said, contrasting her blog to sites like Vogue-owned style.com. This personal touch has come to define Chicago’s growing fashion scene. Once thought to take a back seat to cities like New York and Los Angeles, Chicago is establishing itself as an incubator for budding designers, stylists and writers. “It is starting to gain focus in a very cottage industry manner, and it is maybe not completely focused on fashion, but more about garment,” said School of the Art Institute of Chicago Professor Conrad Hamather. “And there is a difference between fashion and garment without hesitation.” Embodying Chicago’s growing fashion reputation, Weinberg freshman Zoe Demacela designs and manufactures her own clothing line out of Chicago. “I think Chicago is special because it’s the perfect environment to get started,” Damacela said. Damacela began her fashion line at 14 years old and won the nationwide Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in 2009. She said she may end up in New York one day but for now she is content to be designing from Chicago. “There are so many programs here where artists get the skills that they need to start without the competition. There is less press than in New York but the press that we do have people really read and pay attention to, so it doesn’t mean you’ll get less attention,” she said. Without the big brands taking over the small fashion community, fashion publications like
>>> Amy Creyer of ChicagoStreetstyle.com. Photo by Kimberle Salter. Chicago Social have taken a different approach to publicizing fashion. “Everything’s a lot more local here,” said Samantha Saifer, director of marketing at Chicago Social. “As much as we’d love to work with brands like Chanel and Gucci, I think it’s a lot more realistic to work with local brands.” At Chicago Social, editorial photo shoots and fashion shows feature clothing from smaller fashion lines and the magazine focuses on developing a relationship with the Chicago fashion community. “It’s about bringing your neighbors to your neighbors,” said Talia Pines, an account executive at Chicago Social.
At the expense of the magazines But as blogs become more prevalent, magazines have noticed a decrease in interest in certain areas. STITCH | 35