WBEZ | fashion

Searching for sweat-free fashion in Chicago

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:56:00 -0500

The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Bangladesh on April 24 continues to make headlines. One of the "worst industrial accidents in the world" is now known to have killed at least 1,127 people.

The event has roiled Bangladesh. There have been worker protests, a number of other factories have been closed at least temporarily, and the owner of Rana Plaza was arrested and faces murder charges.

Those poor labor conditions within Bangladesh’s enormous garment industry have had consequences around the globe. Rana Plaza workers helped supply major European and North American chains, and there’s increased pressure on these companies to help improve safety standards in the global garment industry. Unfortunately, not everyone is getting with the program.

And many consumers, including me, have started to take a hard look at those innocent-looking outfits hanging in our closets or stuffed in our drawers. What, exactly, are we buying into?

Now I’d like to be able to give myself a pat on the back when it comes to sustainable or ethical fashion. After all, I buy the majority of my clothes at thrift or secondhand stores. Yes, even shoes. But I can't say that concern over the clothing supply chain drove me to it. I started thrifting in high school because I wanted to look cool, like my older brother’s girlfriend at the time, Heidi.

Heidi was a madly savvy thrifter, but she was actually concerned about ethical consumerism. She dug up a copy of Diet for a Small Planet by the early eco-foodie Frances Moore Lappé, and stressed the reuse and reduce angles of the holy environmental trinity. She also worried that her Mennonite family had strayed from its social values in favor of conspicuous consumption. Heidi was smart and persuasive, so I kind of paid attention to her ideas. But mostly I made note that replicating Diane Keaton's preppy menswear style in Annie Hall was going to be dead cheap at a church rummage sale.

And so, driven more by the thrill of a good find than a set of good politics, I’ve kept going to the thrift store. But that's not to say I haven’t picked up a few insights along the way.

One way of weeding out the real retro clothing from the Old Navy clones is to take a look at the label. If it says "Made in America" then chances are I’m looking at a garment that dates back to at least the 1980s. Up until then, locally made clothing was easily available. And if the dead-stock price tags I've stumbled across are any indication, it was also affordable. And not just the polyester stuff. We’re talking quality clothes, made from cotton, linen or silk. I often wonder if that's because they were produced simply: I'm struck by how low-tech the actual assembly of many of these garments appears. More than once when I've taken an older dress to be altered, the seamstress has mistaken something factory-made for a hand-sewn garment.

In just a few short decades though, oh, how things have changed - at least if we’re to judge by the stuff current discount retailers such as Forever 21 or Target or "insert name here" are selling.

One of the reasons I stopped shopping at those places is I couldn’t take the increasingly poor quality of the clothes. I kept wondering not just where the clothes are made, but what they’re made from.

These days, new clothes smell so strange, like molded plastic products, made via a chemical-laden process better suited to car or weapons manufacturing. And if elastane and polyamide are just the new synthetic fabrics, why do they feel so flimsy and slip-slidy? Why don't they actually feel like clothing?

They're the garment world's equivalent of mystery meat. And despite my knee-jerk belief that the best clothes are those to be had on the cheap, I’m developing this mad compulsion: To dash into the fashion aisles yelling "Don't (wear) anything your Grandmother wouldn't recognize as (clothing)!”

Okay, who am I kidding? I’m not the Michael Pollan of clothing. I haven’t entirely given up shopping at places like T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. For many of us, especially people with kids, cheap or disposable clothes feel like not just a bargain but a necessity. After all, how many of our salaries have risen alongside the price of Mary Janes or Garanimals?

Still, I'm not alone in wondering how it’s possible to make a T-shirt so cheaply you can sell it for $5. A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay more for clothes made here. Apparently pride in the idea of a homegrown clothing industry trumps even our pocketbooks (wherever they come from).

Unfortunately, even if we want to buy clothes locally, we’d be hard pressed to find them. As my highly unscientific survey of thrift stores confirms, we’ve "offshored" the bulk of American clothing manufacturing, some 98 percent of it, according to many reports.

In doing so, we seem to have traded quality for quantity. But the bigger trade-off is transparency: We can’t see where our clothes come from, who makes them and under what conditions. That’s the hard lesson of the Bangladesh factory collapse. And in an effort to take it seriously, I’ve decided to cut out the disposable clothes and start looking for clothes designed and manufactured right here in Chicago.

If you think that’s easy as pie in the "best country in the world" think again. There are deplorable labor conditions to contend with much closer to home. Recently, both WBEZ and the Chicago Reader have explored questionable labor practices behind some of our most everyday objects. According to the Reader report, if you want to know who made your Beanie Baby and how much they’re paid to do so, you don’t have to go to Bangladesh or Guatemala or Eastern Europe. Just take a trip to Bolingbrook, Ill.

Still, according to some of the people I spoke with, small-scale and ethically sound manufacturing is on the rise in our area. We also have a government that appears to be willing to help grow it. So to the extent we too can support our local factories, that's likely to make for good economics and good politics.

With a city this big and creative, I can only scratch the surface of consciously made clothing options. So I've decided to focus on independent "high" fashion made on a small scale. Most of these designers and producers reflect a relatively new but growing interest in sustainable, hand-crafted goods, including clothing.

The Designer: Shelby Steiner. I was immediately intrigued by Steiner when I found out the source of one of her collections was inspired by “The Cove,” the devastating eco-documentary about dolphin slaughter. Steiner makes her own custom prints, and she’s used that talent to design collections that reflect on rhinoceros poaching or conflict diamonds.

Steiner says finding truly environmentally friendly fabric can be difficult: The high temperature process involved in its making can be difficult to get around. But she sources as much of her materials from the States as she can, and uses materials like vegan leather or fabric that is free of that nasty plastic, polyvinyl chloride.

Steiner is currently in residence at the Chicago Fashion Incubator, a 2005 collaboration between the city of Chicago and Macy’s to help young designers launch their careers. Steiner says all six of the current residents are trying to create fashion made solely in Chicago or the U.S. Their next big runway show is in October; right now the designers are getting their lookbooks ready and approaching boutiques with their designs.

The Retailer: Dovetail. Over the past 10 months, Julie Ghatan has been quietly but steadily turning her vintage clothing boutique into a showcase for locally made designs (including those by Shelby Steiner). Ghatan had her epiphany about the clothing supply chain while shopping for a "splurge" in a high-end boutique.

"The price point was above $100, but all the labels said 'Made in China,'" Ghatan said. “So what am I paying for?"

Ghatan thinks people are getting "bamboozled" by shelling out for designer labels "when the source materials are the same as Forever 21."

Ghatan started with menswear and all the lines she carries, including Vagrant Nobility and Glass House Shirtmakers, are made locally (see below). More recently she's branched into women's wear. Currently, Sadie Monroe and Claire Henry of Co.lab are showing their first ready-to-wear line there, a summer collection inspired by nomadic voyages.

Ghatan says that though she's in West Town ("not exactly a shopping hub") people are making the trip to see and buy local clothes. She tries to convert people by explaining the labor process behind the higher prices and by hitting them on a "selfish level" — both she and the designers pair their quality clothing offerings with a level of enthusiastic and attentive service that's largely absent from corporate or discount retail.

The Manufacturer: Stock Manufacturing Company. For Tim Tierney, one of the designers behind local menswear line Vagrant Nobility, making clothes locally was actually a selfish option – or at least a cost-saving one. "Early on we were not given a choice,” Tierney said. "We didn’t have the volume or funds to afford manufacturing overseas."

Tierney and his partner found a local option at A. I. Industries, a uniform manufacturing company run by Areill Ives and his family since the 1960s. Tierney, who used to work in the pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, says they quickly realized that instead of just manufacturing their own line, they could also be a resource for other small designers, who were also looking to make stuff locally at a decent price. So they brought in Ives and two other partners to form Stock.

Teirney attributes Stock’s efficiency and economy to its "vertical process" whereby everything it takes to make a garment is done in-house (except manufacturing the fabric itself, which Tierney sources only from developed countries, including a trusted Japanese textile maker). Their operators are paid by the piece, and Tierney says nobody makes less than $10 an hour (but closer to $16 or $17 depending on how fast they work).

But it also has to do with a more radical gambit.

At Stock they combine a largely unchanged process of making clothes on old school machinery (and by hand) with the very modern power of social media. Partnering with local people (designers, bloggers, tastemakers), Stock puts designs up on its website and ask people whether or not they’re interested. If enough people buy in, the object (shirts, ties, you name it) gets made and sold at a price without a retail markup.

So far Tierney says most of the designs have attracted enough buyers to be made. As for the future, he says if things take off, they have plenty of room to grow. Between uniforms and designs (which are still a tiny part of their output), the factor generates about $1 million in revenue annually. But Tierney thinks they have the capacity to expand to about $10 million annually in their current space

The bigger question may be whether Tierney and his partners can sustain their own energy. "Running a factory, managing its production, is brutal," Tierney said, adding that it isn’t all that easy for newcomers like him. "[To do it well] you have to do have done so for a long time, back in the heyday of Chicago production."

So, clearly a shift in our clothes consumption isn’t going to be easy - for anyone involved. And I'm not saying buying a locally made, button-down shirt can make up for all the deaths at the Rana Plaza complex in Bangladesh. What could, short of criminal proceedings, alongside a wholesale overhaul of our global clothing economy?

Plus, buying local or handmade clothing may not even be the best solution. Some think moving to a fully automated manufacturing process might be the way to bring back an affordable, safe and sustainable garment economy in the United States.

But what do you think? How - and where - do you shop for clothes? Do you care about sustainable or organic fashion? Would you give your businesses that make clothes locally, even if the prices are higher? And if you don't, what would make you change your mind?

Alison Cuddy is WBEZ’s Arts and Culture reporter. Follow her @wbezacuddy, on Facebook and on Instagram.

Abercrombie & Fitch is not the only brand that hates fat people

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500

Remember that song by '90s boy band LFO with the line, "I like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch?" Well, apparently the company's CEO Mike Jeffries only likes his girls to wear Abercrombie & Fitch if they're a size 10 or smaller—no exceptions.

The controversial clothing company makes $5 billion a year in sales, yet still manages to exclude the vast majority of the American population and make them feel like worthless lepers at the same time. And of course, this stupendous level of bigotry is no accident: fat-shaming is the spiny backbone of A&F, and a philosophy that Jeffries holds dear.

According to Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail and CEO of The Robin Report, recently laid out Jeffries' bottom line:

"He doesn't want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people," Lewis told Business Insider. "He doesn't want his core customers [ages 18-22] to see people who aren't as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they're one of the 'cool kids.'"

A&F won't sell clothes bigger than a size 10 pant and a size L top for women. For men, they will sell up to size 2XL to accomodate athletes.

In a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries himself confirmed that the A&F business model was founded upon unabashed size discrimination:

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and there are the not-so-cool kids," Jeffries told the site. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive, all-American kid with a great attitude and lots of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes] and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

In Jeffries' sad and distorted worldview, only the thin people can be happy, cool, popular and beautiful. This is a logical fallacy of epic proportions (is he blind to the stunning beauty of Adele, Sara Ramirez and Christina Hendricks, et al?) but unfortunately, Jeffries is not the only fashion mogul who openly shares this belief.

Karl Lagerfeld

The eccentric German fashion designer and current head of Chanel had a very strong reaction to Brigitte magazine's announcement that they would begin using "normal, realistic" women instead of scary-skinny supermodels in their photoshoots:

"It's absurd! No one wants to see curvy women. You've got fat mothers with their bags full of chips, sitting in front of the television saying thin models are ugly. Fashion is about dreams and illusions. No one wants to see round women."

Tom Ford

In an interview with Time Out Hong Kong, the British fashion figurehead of Gucci and CEO of his own Tom Ford label revealed a preference of Asians to white people in terms of ideal body type:

"Americans are too fat. And in London they are starting to get fat too. So I have to say that if we have to talk about race system and nationalism, I find it refreshing that everyone Chinese is slim."

Anna Wintour

Everybody knows that the infamous fashion editor of Vogue loves her models "Paris-thin" and hates fat people. In a 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, Wintour admitted to telling Oprah that she should drop a few pounds before gracing the cover of her precious magazine:

"I suggested that she...lose a bit of weight...I said simply that [she] might be more comfortable. She was a trooper! She totally welcomed the idea and she went on a very stringent diet and it was one of our most successful covers ever."

But let's take a look on the bright side: not all fashion designers and clothing companies reject the average American woman (who wears a size 14, by the way). Popular retailers for young people like Forever 21 and American Eagle carry up to size 18 in women's clothes, and H&M's newest swimsuit model is size 12 beauty Jennie Runk.

Still, we live in a world where 50 percent of girls age 3-6 hate their bodies, and one in 10 people will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives. Jeffries' message perpetuates a pro-skinny elitism that is not only irresponsible, but also blatantly cruel, outrageously sexist and frighteningly detrimental to our society as a whole.

We should raise our sons and daughters to value themselves not by the numbers on their clothes, but by the attributes that make each of them unique regardless of their size.

Also, who cares if you can't fit into those A&F distressed denim jeans? They went out of style about 10 years ago anyway.

Leah Pickett writes about popular culture for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

Reviewing ‘The Walk’: Student fashion from the School of the Art Institute

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:35:00 -0500

Never mind the weather, here’s how I know that spring has really arrived. It’s the moment when I find myself inside a temporary tent set up in Millennium Park, perched on the edge of a long, white runway, seated next to my colleague and fellow fashionista, Natalie Moore.

Pens and cameras in hand, outfits tight and sharp, we were more than ready to review “The Walk,” the School of the Art Institute’s annual student fashion show.

Now in its 79th year, the show features the work of sophomore, junior and senior students. As you might expect of an art school, some of the looks are highly conceptual and absolutely unwearable. They’re explorations of an idea or theme or moment in history which makes for drama on the runway, but won’t translate into a street look — at least not without major refinements.

Natalie and I both appreciate experimental or cutting edge art and fashion. But face it, like most of you, we’re also just looking for something to wear!

The sophomores in some way face the biggest challenge. They work with a very limited set of materials and color palette, and they only get to produce one look.

Press play, then "X " for full screen. "Show info" displays captions.

Still, they’re the base from which all the looks emerge, and we often can trace a transition across the different classes. What starts as an idea or concept among the sophomores will be radically transformed by juniors, only to bloom into the seniors’ fully-realized set of fashion looks.

Turns out, that wasn’t the case this year. In fact, I’d call 2013 the year of the upset!

For one, both Natalie and I were far more entranced by the juniors’ work than the seniors’.

Rosa Halpern’s work was particularly exciting. Working with a dark, dramatic palette, Halpern’s looks included an elaborately constructed puffy long coat, perfect for today’s fall-like weather (Natalie said it looked a bit like some of Junya Watanabe’s work), which included one of the most intriguing and prominent accessories of this year’s show: masks and other facial coverings.

Halpern said she was inspired by Algerian Muslim gypsies and female hip-hop artists, and wants to make clothes “that make women feel stronger and better and more awesome, and enjoy life more.”

Jelisa Brown’s outfits deployed some Chicago icons, including our city flag. Brown also referenced Michael Jordan on the back of a flowing red cape. Her looks reflected hometown pride but also took a playful or even critical stance toward those icons. The Jordan image, for example, looked a lot like that fabled gingerbread man, running away and yelling ‘catch me if you can!’

That the juniors stood out kind of makes sense. Junior year is the moment to experiment, since students have made it through the trial by fire of their first year, but they don’t yet feel that pressure seniors have to get out there and find a job!

But it was also because the senior work felt safer to us than in recent years, especially last year.

The color palette was very muted in many cases, and minimalist looks were rampant. That can be interesting fashion territory to explore. But too often it created looks that made me think of the fashion establishment: think Calvin Klein or Eileen Fisher. Both are great designers, but they’re hardly what you’d expect from student designers, who tend to be more experimental and adventurous in their work.

In a few cases, a minimalist approach did work well. Kirstie Breitfuss, whose theme was “The Art of Noise,” used an unusual palette of light browns, reds and greens to create a sophisticated, subtle texture.

Other standouts include Krystle Thomas, whose collection “The In-Between” reminded me of Chicago artist Hebru Brantley’s work, as if some of his characters had come to life on the runway.

Carlie Hougen said her looks are generally inspired by a historical period, in this case the 1950s anti-communist sentiment that culminated in the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as well as films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hougen took those images of cultural anxieties and, inspired by a short film she found depicting the effects of LSD on a woman, explored “how a housewife on LSD might dress.” Our favorite look was an over-sized black and red check wool trench coat (think lumberjack) over a very soft and fragile pale pink- and yellow-patterned dress.

But the stand-out (and to my mind, the second major upset of this year’s show) was the menswear. I’ve often found the men’s clothes just don’t measure up to the designs for women. So I was pleased to see that the work of many designers, but especially the looks by Sam Salvo, raised the menswear bar very high.

Salvo’s looks incorporated ideas about the power structure of male sexuality, including bondage elements (a thigh harness and chains!). I was struck by the dramatic and elegant edge to his clothes.

I had worried going in that the fervor over Baz Luhrmann’s film The Great Gatsby might have produced a lot of 1920s looks (as it has in mainstream fashion). Salvo’s looks came closest, but put a fashion alchemy on a historical period (like Hougen) that made his clothes much more reflective of our moment.

Salvo says his fashion inspiration reflects what he wants, but also sometimes fears to wear.

And that’s exactly the impulse that made the best student designs so inspiring: the ability to turn personal or cultural or historical fears into fashion that is absolutely, one hundred percent fearless.

Alison Cuddy is WBEZ’s Arts and Culture reporter. Follow her @wbezacuddy, on Facebook and on Instagram.

Afternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashion

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:12:00 -0500

Niala talks with CEO Kevin Willer about the anniversary of 1871 and how it has grown in the last year. Wailin Wong and Jimmy Prude weigh in on the tech community in Chicago. Then, Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore ask the question: What inspires your fashion style?

View the story "Afternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashion" on StorifyAfternoon Shift: 1871 anniversary, tech and immigration reform and SAIC fashionNiala talks with CEO Kevin Willer about the anniversary of tech hub 1871. Wailin Wong and Jimmy Prude weigh in on the tech community in Chicago. Then, Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore review the Art Institute's fashion show. Call 312.923.9239 or tweet using #AfternoonShift.Storified by · Fri, May 03 2013 11:11:28Happy Birthday, 1871: Afternoon Shift spends the hour assessing Chicago's tech chops with Chicago Tribune business reporter Wailin Wong and tech community organizer Jimmy Prude. The startup hub 1871, housed in Chicago's Merchandise Mart building, turns one this week. According to a report released earlier today, the organization created 800 jobs. Kevin Willer, who runs the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, the non-profit that operates 1871, reflects on 1871's growth and where it is headed. What is Chicago's reputation for tech?1871 celebrates its one-year anniversary with a survey of accomplishments and a look forwardThe 1871 technology incubator celebrates its one-year anniversary on Friday with 225 startups - most of which are growing, though largely...Celebrating the 1st year of @1871Chicago w/ @GovernorQuinn @kwiller @NewWorldVC @vprillinois @starterleague @IMSA_ http://pic.twitter.com/lF3w790zIhISTCoalitionHappy 1st birthday @1871chicago. May 2, 2012 was an incredible milestone for Chicago's startup community. Thrilled to still be a part of it.Melissa LedererTech news: Chicago Tribune business reporter Wailin Wong, tech community organizer Jimmy Prude and Kevin Willer, head of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, take the pulse of Chicago's tech community. Wailin looks at a new hub designed to bolster startups in the biological sciences. Jimmy talks about the need to foster tech talent at the elementary school level. Are your kids learning tech skills at school? 1871 tech co-op created 800 jobs in first yearThe roughly 200 startups working out of the 1871 collaborative hub at the Merchandise Mart created 800 jobs during the space's first year..."Investing in talented people creates jobs" -- @GovernorQuinn at @1871Chicago #innovation #startupsISTCoalitionTech industry mobilizes on immigration: Tech giants like Facebook and Google have spent a combined $13.8 million to lobby for the expansion of temporary visas and green cards for high-skills foreign workers. Former Googler Josh Mendelsohn co-founded lobbying outfit Engine Advocacy to give startups a bigger voice in the immigration debate. He tells Niala what he wants to see in new immigration legislation. How reliant is the tech world on foreign workers?Tech companies driving the lobbying on immigrationFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on March 7. (Photo: Jeff Chiu, AP) WASHINGTON - Seven...The myth of America's tech talent shortage, and what it should mean for immigration reform. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-myth-of-americas-tech-talent-shortage/275319/Jordan WeissmannEducation, Entrepreneurship and Immigration: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part IIA report released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that tracked the educational backgrounds of immigrant entrepreneurs who were ke..."The Walk": This morning WBEZ's Alison Cuddy and Natalie Moore attended the School of the Art Institute's fashion show dress rehearsal. The official runway show, dubbed "The Walk, and the scholarship benefit dinner happens tonight. Alison and Natalie review the student show, which is celebrating 79 years. What is your fashion inspiration? #thewalk #saic #fashion2013Liz Averyheaded to cover the #walk @SAIC w/ @natalieymoore. asking student designers about their fashion inspirations - what are yours? tell us!alison cuddy#SAIC Fashion ShowAlanna Lamma

When la Mode Became Modern

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:08:00 -0500

Between 1685 and 1720, the phenomenon know as the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes dominated cultural life in France. For the first time, the concept of modernity was discussed on a broad scale. By the time the Querelle had subsided, a new style had been created: it became known as the "modern style." The modern style revolutionized not only literature, music and the fine arts, but all the decorative arts as well - from furniture and clothing to candlesticks and clocks.

Art historian Joan DeJean discusses this influencial style as part of the series, Mode et Modernité: The Object of Fashion which explores modernité as a concept valid over the centuries, with a special emphasis on the dialogue between la mode in interior decoration and la mode in fashion.

Recorded live Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at Alliance Française de Chicago.

Join the grand tradition of looking kind of bad at your baby's baptism

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 08:26:00 -0600

A friend of mine is having her baby baptized soon, which is very lovely, except for the fact that the baby is five months old already.

No, it’s not a problem because the parents let the baby risk being alive all these five months before getting some nice-smelling oil rubbed on his little baby head. If it weren’t for the cute frilly white dresses and the way everyone holds their breath when the baby gets the water splashed on the baby head, I’d say no one should be baptized until they’re 18 and have picked his or her religion.

The problem is that this mother unfairly skirted the tradition (in the christening set) of Looking Kind Of Bad At Your Baby’s Baptism.

Looking Kind Of Bad is not at all the same as looking actually bad. You wouldn’t find a picture of yourself in Glamour with a bar across your eyes for Looking Kind Of Bad. It’s just the sartorial result of being presented by the challenge of being required to look nice on a photo-op day that is a significant occasion shortly after you just had a baby. It’s been difficult enough simply taking care of the child, taking care of the house not to mention keeping yourself together in the face of basic biology (wherein, post-birth, your boobs explode and your uterus falls out.) Then you have to find a dress that covers up your postpartum belly but is slightly hipper than a muumuu. And you need to find shoes and jewelry to go with that nonexistent dress and don’t forget to do your hair and makeup. You could put your clothes on before you feed the baby but then the baby might spit up on you so hurry, hurry! Get dressed before you get to the church. Don’t forget the undereye concealer, you waking zombie. So it’s no wonder that mothers in their kids’ baptism photos look a tiny bit uneasy in addition to tired and happy. I myself purchased a Gap dress that was simultaneously gigantic yet also too short, but what really mattered was that it was a fun day, the baby behaved and we ate some delicious honeybaked ham.

Looks aren’t everything, especially when it comes to recording your kid’s life. (This essay by Allison Tate encapsulates that beautifully.) We can’t all look like Claire Danes who looks like she must have given birth to a pea-baby. What’s important on a christening day is health and happiness and family and whatever spiritual element one finds in the day (and of course whether the baby cries once its baby head gets wet.)

But once I realized that feeling awkward in your clothes on a baptism day is a funny sort of tradition and not a curse, it seems like some sort of cheat, like managing to skip over puberty and going straight from adorable childhood to confident adulthood. So whether you’re doing the christening late or you used a surrogate or adopted, just do the decent thing and at the very least, eat a big meal right before the christening, and join the club.

Is there a time and a place for fur?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:37:00 -0600

A few weeks ago my colleague Leah Pickett wrote a blog post about how to stay warm yet remain fashionable when the temperatures dip, suggesting, to my chagrin, that black puffer coats are démodé (I got one for Christmas and I LOVE it. You will literally have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.)

I think there are small ways one can try to perk up a winter wardrobe (I choose to express myself with a pair of outlandish teal leather gloves) but at a certain temperature (26 degrees Fahrenheit), it all goes out the window. Earlier this week I walked the dog while wearing polka dot pajama pants over wicking running pants for an extra layer of warmth. Hat head is a small price to pay for an insulated noggin. The company Sorel has launched a successful campaign convincing women that bulky, furry snowboots are a fashion statement (successful in that yours truly owns a pair of Helen of Tundra boots a few years ago and will wear them over said pajama pants.)

In this vein, I have a theory that in Chicago, anyway, at a certain temperature, animal fur is considered slightly more tolerable.

If you pressed me, I couldn’t argue why humans should wear fur, just the same way I know deep in my soul that humans probably don’t need to eat meat. We do it because it’s enjoyable and feels nice and it’s one of those ethical issues that, for some, is easy to not worry about. When some of us see a delicious buffalo wing, we don’t envision a miserable, trapped chicken and when I wear my very warm fur scarf, it doesn’t resemble a terrified, doomed fox (or raccoon? Or coyote? I have no idea.) It’s a moral elision, where it’s easy not to think too hard about it for those who don’t want to.

But a lady (or gent! Because I’ve seen these guys) wearing a full-length fur coat on the bus in single-degree Chicago temperatures, stirs up far fewer objections, at least in my mind, than observing a fashionable young woman trotting around in a fur vest on Oak Street on a fall day*. The ends maybe do not justify the means but one fur coat looks like survival whereas the other simply is a sign of ostentatiousness. When the temperatures dip, wear what you want: pajamas, fur, a heating blanket plugged into a portable generator, whatever. Then again, perhaps it’s not a measure of whether some fur is justified and some is not: perhaps when it’s just that cold, one is too busy staying warm to have much of an opinion on what others are wearing.

There are plenty of you out there for whom fur is never acceptable in any situation. But are there others out there who let their ethical (or fashionable) guard down the same time the mercury slides down?

*For some reason, fur looks much less strange on older people than it does on the young.

Hot style, cold city

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Fashion isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Chicago (that would be sports and deep dish pizza), but in the dead of winter, my commitment to personal style suddenly becomes very important. I start asking myself questions like “Where can I find a coat that doesn’t make me look like the Michelin Man?” and “Can I wear motorcycle boots with floral tights and not look like I’m trying too hard?” I also wonder how many cardigans/sweaters/jackets I can layer before I turn into Randy from A Christmas Story and can’t put my arms down.

Luckily, Chicago has an eclectic mix of stylish people for me to observe and admire. 16-year-old fashion icon Tavi Gevinson is an Oak Park native, and her blog The Style Rookie is an enchanting treasure trove of vintage-inspired creations. Other excellent local blogs worth mentioning include Trés Awesome (which TimeOut Chicago recently voted Best Fashion Blog of 2012), New City's Boutiqueville, ChiCityFashion, In Fashion Chicago with Barbara Glass, Style Block, Chicago Looks, "Street View" by Isa Giallorenzo for the Bleader, The MidWasteland, the Chicago tab of Refinery 29 and Amy Creyer’s Chicago Street Style.

So, how does one keep up with the hot new fashion trends in freezing cold weather? Whether shopping at high-end boutiques in the Gold Coast or quirky secondhand stores in Wicker Park, three simple rules apply:

Pile on the accessories

Mom says layer up, and she’s right. This is the time to wear all of those fuzzy mittens, chunky scarves, knee socks over patterned tights and adorable winter hats that you can't wear during the summer (unless you're trying to be ironic). Also, invest in a pair of smartphone gloves ($3.99 on Amazon) to stay tech-savvy in the snow.

Ditch the puffer coat

At some point during every winter that I've spent in Chicago, I've found myself drowning in a sea of boring black puffers on Michigan Avenue. This year, however, I've noticed that more Chicagoans are wearing colorful statement coats that better express their personalities and unique fashion sense. A good warm lining (like wool, fleece or faux fur) can make a bomber or even a biker-inspired leather jacket feel comfy and insulated.

Rock the ugly boots

2012 was the year of the Hunter boot. I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing them, and felt a little self-righteous about the fact that I refused to buy a pair. This season, I've observed a markedly different trend: the uglier, the better. Okay, so calling Doc Martens "ugly" might be a bit harsh, but the fashionable return of these grunge-era boots proves that 2013 is the year of alternative footwear. Edgy combat boots are also making a comeback, as well as these vintage floral Docs.

What are your cold-weather fashion staples? Do you frequent any local stores or street-style blogs that you think should be on our radar? Send us a tweet or leave a comment below.

Follow Leah on Twitter @leahkpickett

Architect Oscar Niemeyer's last work? It just might be the shoes

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 05:00:00 -0600

The last work of famed modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer who died two weeks ago at age 104 might not be a building, but a line of shoes he designed for Converse.

Niemeyer, best known for the visually-striking buildings of the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia, created a line of shoes that was released about six weeks before the architect's death — and went relatively unnoticed in the United States. The shoes feature words from a Niemeyer poem, written in Portuguese, in which he famously said his architecture was inspired by Brazil's mountains, bending rivers and curvy women.

Converse released the line on October 23rd in celebration of its 104th year in business. In a news release, the company said the five new shoes were designed "with a nod to Niemeyer’s legendary curve and his creative, rebellious point of view."

It might sound a bit like naked capitalism — like when Halston designed clothes for J.C. Penny — but it likely wasn't from Niemeyer's point of view, at least. The Brazilian-born architect, who was once president of the country's communist party, created his Converse chukka boot (third from the left in the above photo) as homage to an unbuilt anti-torture monument he designed in Rio de Janeiro. Other shoes in the line also carry political statements, according to Converse.

Niemeyer also desiged a line of jewelry for H. Stern a few years ago:

The Converse shoes are only available in Brazil — for now at least. They cost the equivalent of $85 to $135.

The Stacy London Interview

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:26:00 -0600

Today’s interviewee is most widely-known as half of the host and style experts on the delightful makeover show What Not To Wear on TLC. More recently, she is the author of the beautifully-designed book The Truth About Style, which, in the mode of WNTW, helps women adjust their exterior to reflect what’s so good about their interior. But in this case, she blends the case studies with her own stories about growing up and struggling with skin disease and eating disorder. (Unrelated, one of my favorite things about her is the cool gray streak in her hair, which is protected in her contract as a spokesperson for Pantene.) You can learn a lot more about her by following her on Twitter.

You dedicated the book, in part, to your haters, but you don’t seem like a particularly divisive public figure to me--what do you tend to get hated on for (according to the haters?)
I think people love to criticize someone who’s perceived as a critic, especially one who is in the public eye doing it. Being a critic is part and parcel of being a style “coach” on WNTW.

But what I truly meant in that dedication was that I’ve learned the most from people who have liked me the least: people who don’t like you ALWAYS have something to teach you, and in that sense, "haters” are something I am grateful for.

Your story about your experience with psoriasis is painful and horrifying. I’m curious to know why you don’t speak about it much on WNTW: it seems like it would be a good way to talk down guests on it with their own self-esteem and physical issues.
I have spoken about my experience on a few episodes but WNTW is a format show. That doesn't always leave room for Clinton [Kelly] and I as hosts to talk personally. The show is really geared and focused on each contributor so in some sense, the book has been a way to dimensionalize myself, and tell my story without worrying it would wind up on the edit room floor.

You discuss your past eating issues in the book. If you could go on a binge today and eat as much as you wanted without any physical or mental fallout, what would you eat?

Momofuku Milk Bar birthday cake truffles. Hands down… And maybe some grilled cheese sammies.

In real life, how do you suggest to someone that perhaps he or she could use a makeover, not necessarily because their style is odious but because they seem like an external tune-up would make them happy? (Or does this only work on TV, with professional stylists?)
Well, it's always helpful to have a professional lend their expertise in these situations (It’s why I co-founded styleforhire .com) and why I think more people should reach out and hire a stylist to help them. But the best way I know for anyone to convince someone of a “style tuneup” is to give them alternative suggestions rather than simply criticize what doesn’t work. What makes criticism constructive is a focus on alternatives and effective solutions.

One thing I noticed both in the book and on WNTW is that you have an effortless way of getting physically close with people you haven’t known for that long. Is that something you picked up as a stylist or has that always been part of your personality?
No, I’m just touchy feely.

What would you advise an authoress on the optimal (practical) way to dress while on a book tour?
Ten steamer trunks and a staff of people to dress you (wink wink).

Microfiber jersey dresses are the best in bright colors and prints. They don't wrinkle, are seasonless, and tend to retain smell which is good when you wear nice perfume and bad if you forget deodorant.

What are some of your least-favorite trends right now, either in street or high fashion?
I just recently tweeted this: “Everything suddenly being all about a dropped waist makes me vaguely uneasy.”

Who do you most often get mistaken for when you’re out and about?
I don't get mistaken for other people, but I do get “You look a lot like that girl from What Not To Wear.”

How does it feel to be the 331st person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
Honored. Excited. And in numerology certain numbers mean certain things.…. If you add 3 + 3+ 1, you get 7. So that means I’m feeling pretty lucky. [Editor's Note: Due to the timing of publication, London was actually Interview no. 333, which must be a lucky number somehow.]