Don McCunn’s Blog

Book Review: Chic Chicago

July 7, 2009 on 12:22 am | In Book Reviews, Favorite Designs, History of Fashion | No Comments

Chic Chicago is an exhibit catalog for garments from the couture collection at the Chicago History Museum. This exhibit runs from September 27, 2008 through July 26, 2009. An earlier version of the exhibit appeared at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York city in 2007 & 2008. If you live in the area or can get there before it closes, I would highly recommend it.

What I find interesting about this catalog and the exhibit is that it shows couture clothes from 1861 through 2008 in the social context of who was actually wearing these garments. When I see these elegant garments I can admire their aesthetic beauty. But this catalog also chronicles the women who purchased them, their social back ground, and where they wore them. For me this takes the appreciation of couture to an entirely new level.

The garments are featured in full color photographs from pages 14 through 133. These photographs feature both full length shots and beautiful closeups that show the immaculate sewing and detail that went into the garments. The photographs are followed by 6 pages that give photographs and brief bios of the 56 high society women who wore the gowns. The final 4 pages include brief descriptions of the 42 designers who created the garments.

Dear to my heart as a pattern maker for custom-fit clothes are the references to the fact that these women would travel 2 or 3 times from Chicago to Europe for fittings to ensure that the garments were correct for their specific bodies.

Amazingly the paper back book comes in a slip cover box that has an embossed sequin pattern from one of the gowns.

For more about this exhibit, visit the Chic Chicago website. I would also highly recommend you watch the video that describes how this exhibit came into existence from the curators who conceived it to the interns who worked on it, see the Behind the Scenes video.