Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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S pring fashion is always a thrill for style-minded Chicagoans, but this year there���s an added reason for excitement: the March 16 opening of the Chicago History Museum exhibit ���Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair.��� Over an intimate dinner at the caf�� at Ikram (arguably the epicenter of high fashion in Chicago), Michigan Avenue gathered with some of the city���s keenest style minds to talk about the state of the fashion scene in the Windy City. Here���s what they had to say.... MICHIGAN AVENUE: Let���s start with a historical question. When did fashion become important to Chicago���and when did Chicago become an important fashion city? NENA IVON: Fashion always has been important to Chicago. If we go back to the history of [fashion in] the city, we go back to basically what Ikram has done: It was with individual shops. It was Ruth Kane, it was Weathereds, Stanley Korshak, and on and on.... The aesthetic then was individualization with the client���the one on one, with the store owner becoming a friend with that client. For the most part that has gone away��� shopping became ���mall,��� it became impersonal. But I don���t think that ever took away the chic look of our people, no matter where you are. You can be in a tiny little town somewhere and there���s going to be a core group of people who are chic. Everyone sitting at this table has a flair and a look. I can���t envision that these are the only people in the city of Chicago who have that. IKRAM GOLDMAN: I have a group of women that I adore���all of you are at this table, but some who attended [a party recently] are at this table. It was a New York party, and there was an editor friend of mine who said, ���Let me tell you, your Chicago girls pulled it all out. They dressed up, they were better looking than any New York girl. They had the better shoes; they had the better hair; they had the better makeup.��� LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Oh, yes! GOLDMAN: It was phenomenal. These were editors. This was a very prominent editor, and she said, ���I was astounded. I was embarrassed that this was a New York party, and we couldn���t pull it together, but your Chicago girls came in, bells and whistles, everything was perfect. Document it.��� There are way too many stylish women in Chicago���and men, by the way. From a historical perspective, people are really starting to move away from thinking that we���re not a fashion city to becoming a very prominent fashion city. Can we just say Michelle Obama came out of this city? And she���s a fashion icon. IVON: There was one point during [my time at Saks] that we [practically] sold more Norman Norell in the city of Chicago than anywhere else in the country. There couldn���t have been anyone more chic.... And Pauline Trig��re. Unless you owned Pauline Trig��re, you weren���t chic.... [But] I don���t think there���s a Chicago look; I think there���s just more ease in the clothes perhaps. GOLDMAN: I think it���s a comfort. It���s not a look; it���s a comfort. IVON: Exactly. I���ve always dressed for me. I never really cared if anyone liked what I had on or not; it didn���t interest me. I think if you���re comfortable within your own being���which is a Chicago aesthetic, that you���re comfortable within yourself���you���re going to look good. NICK CAVE: As a visual artist, I also have a responsibility not only with what I produce in my studio to create what is art, but also the image I want to portray, so that [too] becomes part of my brand identity. Who am I when I step outside of my comfort zone or my environment into the real world? And then how do I want that to be perceived? I strive to be 108 DRESSED TO IMPRESS Meet six Chicagoans who keep their wardrobes and r��sum��s looking sharp. IKRAM GOLDMAN After opening her namesake boutique on Rush Street in 2001, Ikram Goldman opened her 16,500-square-foot ���red box��� in River North in 2011. The celebrated stylist curates a unique selection of designers, including Comme des Gar��ons, Nina Ricci, and Chanel. An eye for style: ���You can find Ala��a anywhere, you can find Givenchy or C��line anywhere, but you come to me because I have a way that I want it to look.��� NENA IVON The longest-tenured employee in the history of Saks Fifth Avenue, Nena Ivon retired as fashion special events director in 2009, after 53 years with the company. Today, she is the president of the Costume Council at the Chicago History Museum and teaches fashion studies at Columbia College Chicago. Dressing the part: ���I don���t wear jeans when I teach. A lot of my colleagues will say, ���Why do you dress up?��� I say, ���I���m teaching fashion here, people.������ DESIR��E ROGERS Currently the CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, Desir��e Rogers made history as the first African-American to serve as White House social secretary. Rogers was previously the president of social networking at Allstate Financial and president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas. Today���s style: ���Women today can take any era, mix it up, and make it our own. We���re not afraid.��� LINDA JOHNSON RICE Linda Johnson Rice is the chairman of Johnson Publishing Company, which publishes Ebony and Jet. Founded by her parents, John H. and Eunice W. Johnson, in 1942, Johnson Publishing Company also produces Fashion Fair Cosmetics and the legendary Ebony Fashion Fair. Fashionably early: ���I lay my clothes out at night���I change my purses, I pull out my shoes and accessories���so in the morning, I���m ready to go.��� NICK CAVE Nick Cave is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago���s fashion design department. The award-winning artist works in a variety of mediums, including performance, sculpture, and video, and is renowned for his highly innovative Soundsuits. Setting the trend: ���As a visual artist, I have a responsibility not only with what I produce in my studio to create art, but also the image I want to portray.��� BRENDA SHAPIRO A former fashion and beauty writer at Mademoiselle and editor at Chicago magazine, Brenda Shapiro is actively involved in the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Words to live by: ���In every generation, you need people who dress for the sheer, exhilarating pleasure of it. You don���t dress for anyone else.��� MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 106-113_MA_FEAT_Culture_Spring13 copy.indd 108 2/8/13 2:29 PM