"Made in Chicago" T Shirts - The Perfect Holiday Gift!

Have you ever noticed that Chicagoans are full of pride for their city?  Yes we do have utterly freezing long winters and not so honest politicians, but don't let us catch you saying anything badly about Chicago or else!  We are born, bred, and "Made in Chicago."

Majority of the Designers at the Chicago Fashion Incubator pride themselves on the fact that their garments are created and manufactured locally.  CFI itself focuses on supporting Chicago designers and giving them resources to help create successful businesses.  CFI has taken that effort one step further and created an organic "Made in Chicago" T shirt that not only allows you to show your pride for the city you love, but also helps support the Chicago Fashion Incubator and our mission to support local fashion designers.  

Dare we suggest that this could be the perfect holiday gift for that special Chicagoan in your life?  These limited addition shirts are available for purchase in our Etsy store (CFI Etsy Store), get one before they are gone!  Look fashionable and help support your local community of fashion designers!

Buyer's Event and Media Presentation

The Chicago Fashion Incubator recently held an exclusive buyer's event and media presentation at Macy's on State Street in our 7th floor event space. Buyers and media were invited to view the spring 2012 collections of our resident and alumni designers, who were showcased at our Fashion Focus Show last month. To those who joined us - thank you, your presence was much appreciated!

See below for highlights from the event!

The fabulous designers of the Chicago Fashion Incubator.

The DJ kept everyone dancing with his innovative mix of oldies and pop music.

Modahnik by Kahindo Mateene.

Cettina by Concetta Cipriano.

Gidi by Teneasha Prunty.

Eric Kipp.

Siobhan by Shavonne Dorsey.

Crystal B. Designs by Crystal Simms.

C/FAN by Christina Fan.

ZAMRIE by Ashley Zygmunt.

Miriam Cecilia.

The Style Tribe Sports C/FAN and Zamrie

Young fashion darlings of local Chicago blog The Style Tribe indulged in a shopping spree at our LAUNCH/CFI pop up shop---and came out covered in C/Fan and Zamrie, lines of our beloved past DIR members Christina Fan and Ashley Zygmunt, respectively.  Take a peek at what Nicole, one of the 5 Style Tribe girls, chose to play dress up with!

Image via The Style Tribe

Incubator.....Ingenius!

The Chicago Fashion Incubator is taking the world by storm!  With our sartorial machine's success gaining steam, we are pleased to see that the media has taken an interest in us---call us the einstein of the fashion and retail industry!  We were the subject of an article written by an organization called Changing Gears.

Changing Gears is a public media project interested in exploring the economic transformation of the industrial Midwest, through the stories of people driving and experiencing this change.  Our Executive Director Lara Miller was interviewed for the article, as was past DIR Stephanie Kuhr (creative mind behind her line Dottie's Delights) and Donaldo Smith (main man of his brand Killian Gui).    

Happy to have been recognized---read up! 

CS Praises Pop Up Shop Opening

For the fashion minded Chicagoan, one knows to, nay takes pleasure to, page through the current month's Chicago Social Magazine.  Well you can imagine our delight when skimming through CS's coverage of art affairs, cultural celebrations and socialite soirees, we saw our very own fashionable festivity!  With compliments galore (gosh CS....you're making us blush!), take a look at the LAUNCH Pop Up Shop Opening rave review in the June 2011 edition of Chicago Social.

The Salon Series: Lara Miller

We at CFI, are not one to brag, BUT when one of our own has a special event---we like to shower them with attention!  On Monday, June 27th, The Salon Series will be featuring CFI's Executive Director Lara Miller for an exclusive dinner soiree in Wrigleyville.  The series will spotlight the limited, oversized bamboo/organic cotton blend scarf collection created out of the brilliant collaboration between Lara Miller and JC Steinbrunner---the founder of The Salon Series.  Each individual scarf from the collection will be hand-silk screened with Miller and Steinbrunner's sketches and will come to life in the following colors: sage, dusk red, cream, light blue, and dark blue. The evening will kick off with refreshing bubbly, a to-die-for trunkshow, AND a reduced 30% off on specials and special orders on the 2011 hand-loomed collections.   The event will open the floor to guest of honor: Lara will offer a discussion of her inspirations and goals, as well as the hard knocks of being a Windy City designer.  The stylishly subtle affair already has a hot following with Racked Chicago and Refinery29...

CFI Public Open House

Exciting news, my eager readers: July 28th, we are opening our studio doors to the public for a peek behind the CFI curtain!  Join us this Thursday evening and see how the Chicago Fashion Incubator machine operates....or should I say creates!  Come see the space that serves as the drawing board for fashion innovation!  Get up close and personal with our DIR: have a chat about their process, see their sketches come to life, and view the garments they have so masterfully created.  It should be an afternoon of fashion and fun so be sure not to miss it, we'd love to see you there!