Organizers of Chicago Fashion Week announced the eight designers that will be featured on the opening runway show next month.
The fashion show — which kicks off Chicago Fashion Week on Oct. 9 — is called “A Celebration of Chicago Style” and will spotlight the city’s diverse designers, many of whom are female founders of color, who create everything from streetwear to evening wear.
The list includes nationally-known designers such as Maria Pinto, who has dressed Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, to emerging names like I am Studios and House of Chelsea B.
“Chicago fashion deserves its turn in the spotlight,” Ian Gerard, principal of fashion events group The Curio, said. Gerard is organizing the opening show and is the co-founder of Chicago Fashion Week, which will include more than 50 events across the city through Oct. 20.
The Curio, the city of Chicago and other partners and sponsors are striving to put Chicago on the fashion map.
The opening night show will be held at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Tickets are available to the public. Prices are $75 to $250.
The city has hosted other fashion events such as Chicago Fashion Focus Week, which ran from 2005 to 2014 in tents at Millennium Park. But October’s Chicago Fashion Week will be a privately produced event with city support.
Many events during Chicago Fashion Week will be open to the public and some will also be free.
Here is the list of the eight designers for the opening runway show.
Barbara Bates
Born in Chicago, self-taught fashion designer Barbara Bates is known for designs with exotic fabrics and leather trim. She has outfitted celebrities such as Sinbad, Michael Jordan, Whitney Houston and Mike Tyson.
While working as a secretary for the First National Bank of Chicago in 1984, Bates began selling her designs out of the bathroom during lunchtime, according to her website. Two years later, she opened a 700-square-foot showroom in the South Loop.
Bates is also the founder of the Bates Foundation, which provides custom-made prom dresses to underprivileged or hard-to-fit young women from Chicago’s inner-city schools.
Chelsea Billingsley
Chelsea Billingsley, founder of House of Chelsea B, blends streetwear design and fiber arts such as crochet. The Englewood native is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. She’s collaborated with brands such as Nike and Jordan as well as pieces for rapper Baby Tate and looks for reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Christina Karin Monley
Christina Karin Monley launched her Chicago-based womenswear label, Christina Karin, in 2012. Described as “Midwest ease and global edge,” Monley opened the brand’s first store in Bucktown in 2019 and a second location last year in Lincoln Park. The line also includes accessories such as sunglasses and hats.
Emmanuel Cabrera
Emmanuel Cabrera, the designer behind Gente Fina, Spanish for fine people, blends traditional Mexican artistry with contemporary design. The self-taught designer from Melrose Park founded the brand in 2018, and it debuted in February at New York Fashion Week. His designs have caught the attention of musicians and athletes, including Bulls guard and Chicago native Ayo Dosunmu, NFL player Rashod Bateman and Mexican musicians Carin Leon and Grupo Frontera.
Alex McDermott
Alex McDermott launched I Am Studios after graduating from the School of the Art Institute in 2022. , Specializing in couture, she is inspired “by her experience with a disabled body” and her designs draw on armor, science fiction, the natural world and classical tailoring, according to a news release.
Justin Dougan-LeBlanc
Justin Dougan-LeBlanc of Justin LeBlanc Design is a professor at Columbia College, where he teaches fashion design and installation. His background spans fashion, textile art, architecture and technology. He was also one of four finalists for Project Runway Season 12, which aired in 2013.
Maria Pinto
Maria Pinto has dressed Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, among other luminaries. The contemporary designer studied at the Art Institute of Chicago then interned in New York City for womenswear designer Geoffrey Beene. She returned to Chicago in 1991 to launch a line of embroidered and beaded scarves and wraps sold by retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys. Her namesake boutique is in River North at 710 N. Wabash Ave.
Sheila Rashid
Chicago designer Sheila Rashid’s unisex clothing line has been worn by Chance the Rapper, Lena Waithe, Zendaya and Bella Hadid. Her made-to-order pieces like denim overalls and puffer jackets combine both “tomboy and feminine qualities,” according to her website.