Whether your style is preppy, classic, whimsical or hipster, plaid can fit into your wardrobe perfectly. Plaid is back in everything from ballet flats to skirts to headphones. "Everything that goes around comes around again," says fashion consultant Barbara Glass.
Shoe boutique A Pied, 2037 W. Roscoe, isn't shy with plaid this season. From fedoras to scrunched scarves, owner Trudy Robinson-Folley has stocked her store with beautiful, colorful and unique plaid accessories. "We have a play on plaids in an unexpected way, being ombre or being mixed with fabrics."
Life's little accidents happen to even the most careful of us, as Jennifer Higgins knows. She founded the Miss Oops product line in 2004 as a clever way to combat annoying problems, from "crack" exposure to nipple exposure:
It was a challenge worthy of Project Runway: Design an outfit using recycling materials. And designers, some as young as 12, used trash to create the winning designs. The outfits which walked the runway at the Trashy Fashion Show sponsored by the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County were fashioned from used coffee filters, and other items normally found in the recycling bin.
Fashionistas were out in force Thursday night in search of the elusive -- the comfortable stiletto. New York-based designer Kenneth Cole welcomed 250 guests to his Chicago (540 N. Michigan) outpost to celebrate the launch of his new collection, 925 Technology Silver, and promised them just that.
Don't let your face get stuck in neutrals; stand out in the crowd with dramatic eyes that pop, with the latest in mascaras, shadows and liners, or lips that look luscious, either glossy or creamy. Create your own look this season with a dazzling array of new products.
New York City makeup artist and La Prairie Colour Ambassador Raychel Wade talks cosmetics:
Debra Mack looked forward to a day of pampering when she walked into the Southwest Side salon Monday. The Pacific Garden Mission resident had her hair cut and relaxed -- a rare luxury for her and the other 99 women treated to makeovers at Exotic Trenz Salon, 2605 W. 79th.
Fashion Focus Chicago 2009 got off to a rainy start last Thursday. Fashionistas drenched their designer shoes as they stepped across the beautiful but slightly flooded white tent in Millennium Park. The opening show -- Macy's Presents the Designers of Chicago -- featured fabulous spring 2010 designs, all from local talent.
Michael Jackson, Elvis and Madonna costumes and Farrah Fawcett and Kate Gosselin wigs are some of top picks among costume buyers, says Randy Israel, owner of the Magical Mystery Tour costume shop in Morton Grove.
The new Pumpkin and Yam Facial at Mitchell Dental Spa, 845 N. Michigan (Water Tower Place, ninth floor), is offering 50 percent off for all of November. The botanical treatment moisturizes, supplies nutrients to the epidermis and provides antioxidants and age-defying benefits. Regular prices -- before the discount -- are $95 for 60 minutes and $55 for 30 minutes.
Thirty-two years is a long time. It was long enough for Jan Sabey to fall in love with nursing, then watch her beloved profession change right before her eyes. "It became all about profit," the 53-year-old former nursing administrator from Frankfort said. So Sabey, who drives a bright blue Volkswagen Beetle, made a bold decision: Leave the profession she had known for more than three decades and open her own business. Standing in Evilena's Red Dresser, her own store, Sabey has no regrets.
They came from all over America -- from all over the world, in fact -- for a shot at stardom. On a chilly and rainy Saturday morning outside the W Hotel on North Lake Shore Drive, hundreds of aspiring models -- lithe and leggy, blond and buxom, Asian, black, Hispanic and white -- stood shivering in a line that began at the W's entrance and snaked its way far down Erie.
