Fashion fix-up
Designers, boutiques scope each other out at Shop CHICago
By STACEY DELIKAT, Medill News Service

4/5/2006 10:00:00 PM 

Thousands of fashionistas filled a line snaking into Union Station March 30, eager to sample the latest creations and accessories by the Chicago area’s burgeoning designer community.The sixth-annual Shop CHICago bonanza, featuring 65 local designers and clothing retailers, drew its greatest turnout ever.Antique lace slip-on sleeve cuffs by Glencoe-based designer Julie Sloan Lowenbaum and one-of-a kind misshapen bangles from Chicago designer Staci Leatherland were for sale alongside T-shirts designed by Fall Out Boy’s lead singer Pete Wentz.Gen Arts, a national organization that spotlights emerging designers and artists at events traditionally drawing huge crowds, organized the event.Among the 2,700 attendees who crammed the station’s Grand Hall were, of course, shoppers, but also retail scouts looking for standout items for their stores.Lindsey Boland’s Wicker Park boutique Habit features about 50 independent Chicago designers, several of whom displayed merchandise at last Thursday’s event."It’s really nice to nurture a community of local designers and get people to start being able to make the fashion industry a viable lifestyle here," Boland said. She designed her own line, Superficial, for years before opening the store eight months ago to fill the void of independent designers she saw in the Chicago shopping landscape."The community has really received the store well," Boland said, "I get a lot of customers coming in interested in Chicago designers."Tricia Tunstall co-founded the Bucktown boutique p.45 nine years ago to promote emerging talent, especially from the Chicago area."We have definitely seen more boutiques carrying more Chicago designers," said Tunstall. "I think that selling to a customer, to have somebody from Chicago, it’s a positive selling point, because they kind of have this personal relationship with that designer."As support for local designers has bloomed, quality has also improved, Tunstall said."It’s New York quality, as far as the designs and the structures," said Tunstall.Sales supervisor Amber Richards of Co-Op in Lincoln Park, the Chicago outpost of Barneys New York, was searching for distinct pieces by local designers to go with the store’s better-known brands like Daryl K-189 and Hanni Y."If you tell someone a piece is by a local designer, they give it a second look," Richards said.The store, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary in Chicago, does not currently carry items by local designers, but Richards said management has been exploring that possibility.Chicago Gen Art Director Kelly Ryan O’Brien said many designers have been picked up by retailers at past Shop CHICago events and others like Gen Art’s annual Fresh Faces fashion show.The upscale boutique Jake, with locations in Lakeview and the Gold Coast, carries lines by local designers featured at previous Gen Art events, including those by Orlando Espinoza and Kent Nielsen. While co-owner Lance Lawson agreed that the quality and aesthetic of these lines sets them apart, he doubted Second City designers will be able to usurp New York’s or Los Angeles’ place in the fashion world."Chicago can offer emerging designers a chance to be a big fish in a little pond, but I don’t think this will be the next fashion capital," Lawson said.Fashion capital or not, Chicagoans were happy to take advantage of the sales, free cocktails, and hand rubs offered at the event."You’re always looking for up-and-coming designers," said Pearl Ochoa of Wicker Park, who made several purchases at the event.Throngs of young male professionals at the show were looking for something else. Many admitted they were more interested in checking out female shoppers than the handmade sandals and knits on display.Asked his reason for attending the show, one man who identified himself as Keith said simply: "To pick up girls."O’Brien said the number of men attending the annual event has tripled over the past six years.

"I think it’s a fabulous idea," she said of Shop CHICago’s reputation as a major pick-up scene. "If I were a single guy I couldn’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to go to this."