OPINION: Chicago ready to rise in luxury fashion
By Mallory Hughes Christian Dior. Versace. Rebecca Minkoff. These three luxury fashion labels are only the most recent brands about to make their mark in the Gold Coast, opening stores and joining other industry giants already in residence including Hermés, Lanvin and Prada. The flood of single-designer stores opened by well-known international fashion labels could […]
WSJ columnist’s new book explains fashion, celebrity relationship
By Mallory Hughes “This is the end of fashion!” Teri Agins, veteran fashion columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of two books about the business of fashion, said this in 1999 after Giorgio Armani produced the first collection of men’s suits without lining to make them more comfortable. In October, roughly 16 years […]
History & fashion of the Mag Mile on display
By Mallory Hughes “Upper Michigan [Avenue] will be properly designed for magnificence, dignity and character, and will be like no other commercial thoroughfare in the world.” – Chicago real estate developer Arthur Rubloff, 1947 Imagine a time in Chicago when North Michigan Avenue, now unofficially known as the Magnificent Mile, wasn’t lined with vertical shopping […]
Local fashion designer, new mom expands business to Shanghai
By Mallory Hughes Native Chicago designer Christina Fan is hoping to change the way women wear furs. In 2008, Fan designed and launched C/FAN, a women’s wear collection, out of her apartment in Wicker Park. Responding to demand, the line quickly evolved into a contemporary fur accessories brand, featuring hats, scarves, vests and sweatshirts made […]
From pop-up shops to permanent storefronts
By Mallory Hughes All of those empty storefronts that plague the city of Chicago will be no more. That’s the goal at least, as pop-up shops spring up in neighborhood after neighborhood. Storefront, a San Francisco-based company that launched in Chicago in July, specializes in helping retailers, designers and artists nail down short-term leases in […]
Chicago Men Stay on Trend
By Mallory Hughes Hot on the heels of the Men’s Fashion Weeks in Milan and London, Paris Fashion Week, which closed on Friday, offered one last look at luxury menswear for the upcoming Fall-Winter 2015 season. When the latest designs hit the European runway, Chicago can seem like a world away. But local men’s boutiques, […]
Fashion exists despite the winter weather
By Mallory Hughes It’s only two weeks into the New Year and Chicagoans are already fighting frigid wind chills. For almost a week, the lows were below zero when the average temperature this time of year is 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Some people allow their sense of style to shine through all of those layers, but […]
