Set amidst a French-inspired garden of perfectly trimmed hedges, sculpted foliage and bunches of soft, white blossoms, Borris Powell’s thirty-three-piece womenswear collection, inspired by the excitement of new love and the advent of spring, is both elegant and youthful in its Fashion Focus debut (October 24). Read the rest of this entry »

Horacio Nieto’s Spring 2010 collections of menswear and womenswear draws inspiration from the past and future, creating two distinct lines that are cohesive on their own, and interestingly complementary together. An infrequent user of pattern, Nieto prefers to communicate his vision through silhouette and broad strokes of color, as exhibited during his fashion show on October 23. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the complete schedule for this week’s Fashion Focus Chicago, in unedited form from the city:

FASHION FOCUS CHICAGO 2009
OCTOBER 22 – 25 – FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Fashion Focus Chicago, a celebration of Chicago’s thriving fashion industry, returns for a fifth year in 2009. Running from Thursday, October 22 through Sunday, October 25 Fashion Focus Chicago showcases some of the city’s top designers, and features runway shows in Millennium Park and at various locations around the city as well as shopping events, and industry seminars.

For the first time this year, Fashion Focus has partnered with some of downtown Chicago’s most chic hotels to offer special shopping packages and exclusive Fashion Focus amenities. Guests will have the opportunity to enjoy a personalized experience at one of these world-class hotels while immersing themselves in Chicago’s hip fashion scene.

For more information, including making reservations for Fashion Focus 2009 events or booking hotel accommodations, please visitwww.chicagofashionresource.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Cool sunny weather and a bustling Division Street are the perfect setting for several boutiques and salons to set up tables and clothing racks on this Saturday afternoon. However, the one that draws the biggest crowd, combining fashion and live music, is Moonshine’s first annual Rockaholic Fashion Fest.

Ten booths representing stores from the Wicker Park neighborhood—M.GO Fashion Salon, Funkshion Clothing, Sugar & Spice, G Design, Dolly Bird Designs and Wanda Cobar Collection to name a few—form a straight line along the side of Moonshine’s parking lot, and a small portion of the sidewalk. As people browse each table, live music blasts from the stage set up on the other side of the lot. The event was put together by Michelle Gomez of Dynamic Hair Studios and Mike Lee of Moonshine as a way to give neighborhood businesses the opportunity to display their products. Read the rest of this entry »

Tommy Hilfiger and Anna Fong/Photo: City of Chicago/Patrick L. Pyszka

The city announced the preliminary details for Fashion Focus Chicago this week, but the full schedule is still to come. Most notably, except for that Terry Hilfiger guy getting involved, is that the event is being held later than ever and that we’re beginning to see some movement on our call for designer-focused fashion shows. The Millennium Park shows have been reduced to three—gone is the ambiguous Sister Cities show. The full press release follows. Read the rest of this entry »

Hoodiecouture.com blogger Elizabeth Aguirre and cinematographer Bobby Rockwell filed this video report from local stylist Justin White’s “Let Them Eat Cake” fashion show at Heaven Gallery. Aguirre says that “Justin totally defied the rules of ‘classic fashion; and instead took his audience into the world of what I like to call ‘rogue chic.’ Ripped tights, bold makeup, and pastels paired with black leather were only some of the trends to watch for on Justin White’s runway.” Read the rest of this entry »

A sunny Saturday afternoon and you, clueless you, think it a nice day for shopping for a new pair of kicks. You arrive at Saint Alfred’s, that Wicker Park sneaker shop you’ve been hearing about, and find the security grate closed. Oh no! Has the economy taken them out too? A couple of teenagers, immaculately attired and topped out in LDRS hats, seem unperturbed; they take advantage  of the large Saint Alfred logo painted on the outside of the grate to take some snaps in front.

Silly you: the action here was all last night, when the latest edition of the Nike Air Yeezy releases kept the crowd of sneakerheads at sway till round about four in the morning, after opening at 12:01am. Yeezy is a ultra-limited-edition series being designed by hip-hop star and renowned clotheshorse Kanye West, and the “limited” part means forget about it, they’re all gone (though trading on eBay north of $600 a pair, up from $215 list, but even retail upcharges from there). But don’t despair your oversight: many of the two dozen or so who camped out, some for two days, at Saint Alfred’s (or Leaders nearby) for the black-on-black edition went home shoeless—the store had less than twenty pairs in total to dispense. You’ve  got at least one more chance to rock like ‘Ye, when the third color combination, the  “Net/Net” (pictured) gets released the first week of June. You may want to get in line now. (Brian Hieggelke)

It’s Friday night, and the Logan Square Auditorium is playing host to the first of two nights for the Chicago Grand Prix-an underground fashion and music event thrown together by promoter-by-way-of-finance-sabbatical Rebecca Austin. Seduced by her travels and experiences watching art, fashion and music collide at festivals and concerts, Austin created Grand Prix Productions to give a boost to the talent she hopes to foster or bring to Chicago.

“You have to pick what it is you love and contribute that,” she explains cheerfully, seemingly unperturbed by the sparse crowd grooving to the fashion show after-party. Upstairs in the balcony, artists and volunteers mingle. DJ Logic relaxes after his set with a bottle of Crown Royal that has just been placed in his hands while Eliot Lipp lies in wait, working through the remnants of the spread next to the bar which has been reduced to a few odd stalks of celery and empty beer cans. Read the rest of this entry »

I was very much looking forward to kicking off my Friday night in fashion at the sleek invite-only party for Issac Mizrahi in honor of his first collection for Liz Claiborne.

So were my two friends L and M. L loves fashion and fantasizes about quitting law school to be a stylist. For the soiree she had styled the adorable M in a pewter mini-dress with studded shoulders and nude patterned tights.

Models were stationed throughout the Ivy Room sporting looks from the collection. The garments were temperate, but retained a certain crispness and quality. The wide-leg trouser suits, gray print dresses and full skirts, demurely hitting below the knee, were certainly appealing. A checker-print gray trench was immaculate and the pink party dresses were perfectly on trend. Same old Liz, I thought, only slightly more playful.

Midway through the evening Mizrahi and CS’s Graham Kostic took to the stage for a light interview. Afterwards, Mizrahi posed for photos and mingled with guests, including my two friends.

Excited to meet the iconic Mizrahi, L boldly started the conversation by asking, “Should I quit law-school to be a stylist?” She demonstrated her prowess with a sweeping gesture towards M, explaining that she had orchestrated her friend’s look.

Mizrahi’s response was a polite and PC, “If fashion makes you less bored than law, you should do it.”

L persisted, rephrasing her question, “No, really, what do you think of the look I styled?”

Pushed, he replied with a feeble, “It’s nice.”

Strangely enough, that’s about how I’d sum up his Liz Claiborne line. (Kari Skaflen)

Isaac Mizrahi’s line for Liz Claiborne is available at Macy’s and, in the suburbs, at Carson’s.

By Nicole Briese

“Who are you wearing?” With the biggest night in Hollywood fast approaching, the stars are surely scrambling to find the answer to that question—the one that will inevitably cross the path of every stiletto to hit the red carpet. The Academy Awards and fashion have always gone hand in hand, and this year will be no exception. While producers routinely tip their hats to the undeniable union with their annual fashion preview, however, this year will be unique—it won’t just be the Valentinos and the de la Rentas that are featured on Sunday. It will also be the unsung local fashion mavens from cities like our very own.

Launching the very first Oscars Designer Challenge, producers have recruited seven up-and-coming designers to go head to head for the opportunity to have their original gown worn onstage by an Oscars escort. The nominees, chosen for their relatively low profiles, herald from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago—three of the seven have significant connections to the Windy City. First Lady favorite Maria Pinto is competing, along with local designer Sam Kori George and Evanston native Moire Conroy.

While Pinto has been publicized for her most high-profile fan, and George and Conroy have both had their share of success in the business, George for one, thinks winning the competition would open a lot of doors. “I think it [would] give me a lot more credibility,” he says. Having been in the business for six years, he says being a nominee has already garnered more of a national interest. “I don’t have a problem working under the radar—I get to do what I love 100 percent of the time. [But] it would be very, very nice to be recognized for that,” he says.

Hailing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, all three share similar roots, but bring very different designs to the competition. “It was a myriad of things that people brought,” George says. “I think every person there did what they do best.”

Pinto’s strapless number features a bubble waist and ruched backing with an iridescent white and silver print.

Conroy says her Oscars creation was inspired by her spring/summer 2009 concept—1960s Summer of Love. “It was really based on an idea of revolution and change…and modernizing those terms into what we’re experiencing today,” she says. “I wanted to be very romantic and really express what that time meant—basically love, freedom and beauty.” Her flowing grayish-blue design emphasizes her strength—drapes. “Everything I do comes from a sort of romantic place,” she says. “Draping is really my strong point.” Given her choice, Conroy says she’d swathe Oscar nominee Angelina Jolie. “I can totally see her wearing [this] gown.”

George, who is used to designing custom pieces, had to think on a broader scale. While he knew he wanted to design “something strapless and elegant,” he did not have the luxury of meeting his “client”—he had to create a dress that would work for any model. After fittings with several local agencies and several different girls, all of whom found the dress flattering, he knew he had a winner. “It works with a lot of different personalities,” he says. “This dress is the skin and bones—anyone can wear it.”

After showcasing their designs to members of the entertainment and fashion press in Los Angeles on February 10, the fate of the designers was ultimately decided by the public. Online polls at oscar.com closed on February 17, with the winner set to be announced prior to the awards ceremony during the “Oscars Red Carpet 2009.”

Could one of these three put our city on the fashion map? It depends. While the talent is obviously here, both Conroy and George agree that Chicago still has a long way to go. “The number one issue is resources,” George says. In order to finish his gown for the competition alone, he had to fly to New York for a day just to find fabric. Conroy recently made the move to New York for similar reasons. “It’s hard to develop something in a country where’s there’s already another city that’s really a fashion capital,” she says.