CHM curator of costume Petra Slinkard recounts the history of the Museum’s FashioNext program and the upcoming Finale for FashioNext 2017. FashioNext is one of my favorite Chicago History Museum events. It was born out of a program established in 2009 with the opening of Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum, where More
Water Tower Place, a seven-story, 758,000 square-foot vertical mall, opened its doors on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in October 1975. At the time, it was almost completely vacant with the exception of its anchor stores, Marshall Field & Company and Lord & Taylor. However, due to its almost immediate success and prominent location on North Michigan More
Costume curator Petra Slinkard reflects on the life of Chicago Bears linebacker Doug Buffone. I distinctly remember the day when I came across these shoulder pads in costume storage. Costume collection manager Jessica Pushor and I were pulling objects for an upcoming private tour, and they caught my eye. I wanted to pull something that More
In honor of Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile®, the Museum blog will publish a series of posts highlighting the stores, garments, designers, donors, and urban developments featured in the exhibition. “The woman who is clever is not a slavish follower of style. She never clings blindly to an arbitrarily prescribed fashion. Individuality is a More