Chicago Fashion Week creates anticipation for students with its novel style

Chicago Fashion Week, often overlooked amidst the city’s renowned deep-dish pizza, architecture and vibrant neighborhoods, is set to make its mark from October 9 to 20. The city’s fashion mavens intend to celebrate the creative threads that define the Windy City.

The autumnal showcase will span twelve days and occur throughout the city. Drawing from the myriad of styles that call Chicago home, the event promises to carve out a new definition of ‘look’ via clothing collections, learning opportunities, award ceremonies, gala events and more.

Contributing to this celebration of local talent, Pam Kendall, co-proprietor of Evanston-based boutique cloth + home, will host her own fashion show, titled “Threaded Stories — A Runway Show of Distinctive Fashion”. Scheduled for October 13, the show is a tribute to nine local designers, their journeys and the stories behind their decision to choose Chicago as their creative playground.

“There is an impressive depth of talent emerging from independent designers in this city,” Kendall remarks. The designers’ process typically involves producing their clothes locally or outsourcing from outside Chicago, but the advent of overseas production has significantly impacted local producers in recent years. Kendall hopes the visibility of Chicago Fashion Week will shed light on the local textile manufacturing industry and spark a renewal of interest.

Different cities harbor different fashion identities: the streetwear aesthetic of New York, the business casual of London. In Chicago however, according to Medill senior Anna Souter, style is intersectional. With no one way to define it, there is a love for the indefinability of Chicago fashion.

With the city’s Fashion Week fast approaching, it falls to student fashion organizations like STITCH Magazine and UNITY Charity Fashion Show, to inform students about the events. Souter just hopes the week will showcase something distinctly Chicagoan, as every Fashion Week should be unique to the city it takes place in.

Medill sophomore Keya Soni Chaudhuri shares the sentiment that many people undervalue smaller-scale fashion weeks compared to behemoths like the New York Fashion Week. She doesn’t necessarily see this as a detriment, however.

“Chicago is a place where there is a straightforward process for signing up to walk for Fashion Week, attending, and it feels like a more accessible space for fashion enthusiasts,” Chaudhuri notes. As a model for Freedom Models and Select Model Management, she finds it logical for Chicago— a city with a wealth of commercial links including, offices, retail stores, and factories— to host a Fashion Week of this scale.

Chaudhuri envisions this event as an opportunity to give previously underrepresented communities the spotlight. “Chicago is ideally positioned to highlight communities that often lack representation,” says Chaudhuri, adding that she anticipates seeing the inclusion of these communities as a core component of Chicago’s Fashion Week in the future.

Chicago’s approaching Fashion Week thus portrays an exciting tapestry of the city’s fashion scene— undefined, intersectional and rich with opportunity for all, reflecting the diverse and inclusive spirit that forms the essence of Chicago itself.