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!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/553637
photography by ryan lowry (rosales and rolon); philip Minefee photography (runway looks). hair and Makeup by alex lopez (rosales and rolon) below: Arabel Alva Rosales and Cesar Rolon Jr., the movers behind Chicago's Latino Fashion Week (LFW), in their South Clark Street space. center and right: Runway looks from Bolivian designer Rosita Hurtado at last year's LFW. Runway Revolution With their ambitious passion project Latino Fashion Week, ArAbel AlvA rosAles and CesAr rolon Jr. are changing the Face oF chicago styLe. by meg mathis "First of all, we're not married!" Arabel Alva Rosales exclaims. Sitting next to Rosales in her loft-like South Loop office, Cesar Rolon Jr. chuckles with her, his blue eyes widening. "We always laugh about that," Rosales continues. "We have different business interests, but we both have a great vision for this." "This" is Latino Fashion Week (LFW), the five-day celebration of style that Rosales and Rolon cofounded in 2006. With a tagline of "By Latinos, For Everyone," LFW has proven a winning passion project for Rosales, the presi- dent and CEO of technology firm AAR & Associates, and Rolon, president of Imagen Marketing Consultants. Catching the pair together is rare, they say ("We don't see each other very much," laughs Rosales, a Lincoln Park resident whose office is lined with accolades, not to mention a framed photo of her with Mayor Rahm Emanuel displayed prominently on her bookshelf ). "It's a really high-level art project, if you will," says Rosales of LFW, whose ninth installment, "Timeless," returns to Block Thirty Seven this month with a red-carpet event featuring local celebrities, Hispanic and otherwise, walk- ing the runway wearing Windy City–based designers like Jimmy Guzmán, Ronald Rodriguez, and Claudia Urrutia. For Rolon, LFW's opening night is the tip of the chic iceberg. "Even though we start with a bang, we end with a bigger bang," says the Logan Square resident. Indeed, LFW hosts a medley of events over five days, from runway shows and VIP receptions to benefit luncheons and afterparties, all designed with key targets in mind: women 35 and older, men, plus sizes, youth, etc. The event has also helped change the minds of fashionistas who may assume that Chicago's scene lags behind LA's and New York's. "The minute we start describing Latino Fashion Week, [the designers] respect the city," says Rosales. "They feel there is a lot more opportunity here, so we're really, really happy that we're able to change that perception and help Chicago shine." September 30– October 4, Block Thirty Seven, 108 N. State St., 773-733-7140; latinofashionwk.com MA INSIGHT chic celebs: "I love Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria—their style, their confdence," says Rosales. Rolon favors a more classic celebrity style: "I look at someone like a Raquel Welch," he says of the iconic Chicago native, "who still looks amazing and wears it well." chicago style: The city's notorious temps don't prevent Rosales from dressing up. "It may be 25 degrees below zero, but when my girlfriends go out to dinner and start taking off their coats, they're dressed to the nines." 50 michiganavemag.com STYLE Partners in Crime