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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HOT SEATS Soak up the season with these other muchanticipated summer happenings. consumer class. And while new styles could be worn by anyone, status remained fixed. The model in Renoir's La Loge, for example, strives to meet society on its sartorial terms, but she overdoes it, telegraphing unmistakably that she is out of her league. Organized by the Art Institute in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art (where it showed this spring) and the Musée d'Orsay, "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity" features not only such stars as Manet, Monet, and Degas, but work by their contemporary James Tissot, who enjoyed great success with conventionally pretty works. "Tissot was a fabulous painter, but he was much more interested in detail," says Groom. "In his The Two Sisters, which shows two women in white, you can almost figure out how their dresses are made. On the other hand, you have Renoir's Lise (Woman with Umbrella), a portrait of his mistress in a white dress. The dress is overwhelmingly white, but it's painted with such big brushstrokes.... It's the sense of a white dress, rather than the story of a white dress." Rounding out their consideration of fashion and modernity, Groom and her —GLORIA GROOM colleagues devote attention to plein air painting, the boulevard as runway, and the standards and codes of masculine garb. And then there are the parasols and corsets, walking sticks and top hats—plus those mute but eloquent mannequins, perfectly turned out in day dresses and ball gowns. "It dawned on me," says Groom, "that to understand how different the artists' transformation of reality was, you had to have the reality, that in order to have the painting of fashion, you had to have the fashion. And you can't do that with landscape." "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity" runs June 26–September 22 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., 312-443-3600; artic.edu MA "Fashion was a serious matter, and an artist had to address it." Fall is fashion's prime time, but Macy's gets a head start with Glamorama, its annual all-out preview of the newest looks from top designers, including Maison Jules (a Macy's exclusive), Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, and Jean Paul Gaultier. A production to rival the runways of Paris and Milan, this year's event—"Fashion in a New Light"—features Grammy winner Sheryl Crow and a performance by the artists of Cirque du Soleil on August 9 at Harris Theater (205 E. Randolph Dr., 312-3347777; harristheaterchicago.org). Summer may be the slow season for many theater companies, but Steppenwolf (1650 N. Halsted St., 312-335-1650; steppenwolf.org) is humming along with two buzzworthy productions: Belleville, Amy Herzog's critically admired examination of an expat couple whose relationship runs aground along the Seine (June 27–August 25), and the compelling William Petersen story Slowgirl (July 18–August 25) about a teenager and her uncle building a relationship in the wilds of Costa Rica. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM BETTCHER (GLAMORAMA) La Loge by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1874. TOP: Glamorama showcases the top looks at Macy's. ABOVE: Kate Arrington stars in Belleville. The music never stops in this town—and Beyoncé fans won't want to miss her appearance on July 17 at United Center (1901 W. Madison St., 312-455-4500; unitedcenter.com). While rarely out of the spotlight (who can forget her performance at the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show?), the pop diva hasn't toured full time since 2009, when she thrilled more than a million people worldwide. MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 070-071_MA_SC_HT_SUMMER_13.indd 71 71 6/18/13 11:58 AM