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/665995
photography by Maria ponce berre (goldMan); Josh goldMan for ikraM (store) Fashion labels come and go, but For the past 15 years one chicago name has been synonymous with the highest oF high style: ram. By J.P. Anderson 15 & FABUlOUS Would it be overstating things to say that Ikram Goldman is Chicago fash- ion? Not by much. A protégé of the legendary Joan Weinstein at Ultimo, Goldman made a state- ment of her own in 2001, opening an eponymous boutique on Rush Street. Fifteen years and one relo- cation later, Ikram is one of the world's most renowned centers of style, with an elite clientele of power players who travel from near and far like pil- grims to a fashion shrine. As Goldman celebrates the 15th anniversary of the boutique, the famously pas- sionate fashionista offers a summary of its history in a series of bons mots. Style storyteller. "I started Ikram because I wanted to curate a story that was not being told any- where in Chicago. It was a place where I felt people would want to gather." Now and then. "When I first started, the amount of collections I saw was minus- cule compared to what I see now, because [now] every- one wants to be a fashion designer. So I can actually curate in a much more pro- foundly interesting way." The first store. "Our accountant said, 'You don't need [more] than 2,000 square feet.' Our Rush Street store was 5,000 square feet—and we outgrew it within a year." Seeing red. "We didn't want the façade to look modern, but we wanted it to have a modern îî "It couldn't just be another store," says Ikram Goldman of her iconic Huron Street boutique, which melds the worlds of fashion and design with a stunning red façade and hyperstylized displays. 102 michiganavemag.com STYLE TRIBUTE