It`s 89 degrees and the citizenry, ambushed by the weekend heat wave, makes the trip to Lincoln Park as much to catch a breeze as to toss a ball.
By 1 p.m. the Lake Shore Drive exits at Fullerton and Belmont are backed up, as the cars ahead crawl through the already packed parking lots west of the lagoons.
About 50 drivers have decided it`s quite all right to drive along a bike path and park on the lawn. A police officer who pulls up on his three-wheeler thinks otherwise.
”They`re parking on my grass,” he says, snatching a fresh pack of tickets from his hip. ”Nobody parks on my grass.”
SOURCE: Anthony DeBartolo.
BUSINESS FITS THEM TO A T
Nine months ago, Jordan Dolin and Barry Friedland, friends from student days at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had an idea. Not a rare one:
launch a line of high-design T-shirts.
But their young company, Psychographics, is meeting some rare success.
Through June 24, their shirts are being featured in the window of Art Effect, 651 W. Armitage Ave., a shop that carries some particularly well-designed and clever clothes and accessories.
And they will be represented in the Museum of Contemporary Art`s TBA show/sale (T-shirts By Artists), opening next Wednesday.
Psychographics` shirts also are in other shops in Chicago–as well as New York, L.A. and Florida (and Madison, of course)–and there are deals afoot with some large retail chains.
Dolin, 24, is the artist and creative director. Friedland, 23, is the merchandising director. It figures: Dolin was the art student; Friedland studied advertising. (Recently they signed on Ron Bloom, 34, as their marketing consultant/strategist.)
”Our inspiration came from the whole Memphis movement,” Friedland says, referring to the seminal Milan design trend.
Says Dolin: ”We see the T-shirt as the blank canvas and put the design on top of it.”
Friedland: ”There are seven designs in the line, including one that encompasses the other six. The colors are vivid, bold, unafraid–yellows, deep blues, a lot of black and white, some deeper teals. We want to spread the word about the Memphis movement.”
The word, in the form of an all-cotton, colorfast T-shirt, will cost you about $18.
SOURCE: John Teets.
KEEPING COOL IN THE HOT SEAT
Beverly Blettner`s nickname last week could have been Grace. As in
”Grace Under Pressure.” She was chairman of the American Cancer Society Women`s Board`s luncheon and Bob Mackie Fashion Show (via Kane`s) in the Chicago Hilton and Towers on Wednesday, and of the Goodman Theatre Women`s Board`s ”Sentimental Journey” dinner-dance for 400-plus Saturday in the Hyatt Regency Chicago. The latter was among the theater`s 60th anniversary events.
Did the fine art of seatsmanship, one of the jobs the chairman oversees, frazzle Blettner`s volunteer nerves? No way.
”At first, I started to get upset,” she said as more than 700 Cancer Society guests entered the Hilton`s Grand Ballroom to find their chairs. ”But then I thought, `What if this was my job? People do make a living doing this.` And both these boards are like big families; everybody helps. Last night, for example, we put out an SOS for reservations help and two additional women came down. We worked on seating until 3:30 this morning.” SOURCE: Margaret Carroll.
MAKAROVA AND THE MAYOR: ON THEIR TOES
”It seems I`m receiving more awards lately but dancing less,” said Natalia Makarova, prima ballerina and recipient of the Chicago International Dance Festival`s Merit Award, at a luncheon in her honor in the Art Institute. Luncheon hostess was Geraldine Freund, founder of the festival in which Makarova performed more than once, and commissioner of the award pin designed by Paloma Picasso. (”I want to put it,” said the delighted pin winner after the presentation, attaching it to her pale blue denim jacket.)
Makarova, an American ballet superstar since her defection from the Leningrad Kirov Ballet in 1970, has said she would soon retire, but her agenda includes a performance in John Cranko`s ”Eugene Onegin” with the London Festival Ballet at a July 16 royal gala. She also has been working with the American Ballet Theater in New York, sharpening the company`s production of
”La Bayadere,” which she choreographed.
However, she has begun to pursue other performance avenues–the musical comedy ”On Your Toes,” for example–and she would like to try acting in a non-musical play, perhaps something like a revival of the 1930s comedy
”Tovarich,” which tells the story of two Russian aristocrats who emigrate during the revolution, then enter domestic service in a wealthy Parisian household. Acting always has been part of Makarova`s art, but because of her Russian accent, she is studying voice projection and enunciation.
She came into Chicago after a stop in Philadelphia, where she had seen a performance of the Kirov, now on an American tour. She was impressed with several ballerinas and believes her former company retains ”the greatest style and schooling of all companies in the world.” The performance did not make her homesick: ”There is no sense to looking back, but it is emotional.” Mayor Harold Washington stopped in at the luncheon to present the ballet star with a pictorial book on Chicago, and she presented him with a book,
”The Russian Empire–A Portrait in Photographs.” The mayor admitted he felt flustered in the presence of the gracefully dynamic Makarova, but he managed a compliment nonetheless, saying as they exchanged gifts, ”I`m sure I`m the envy of every man within earshot and eyeshot of you.”
SOURCE: Margaret Carroll.
BIG BUILD-UP FOR ALLIANCE
Bricks and mortar were objects of affection and devotion among guests at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago`s Le Grand Bal in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Nearly 400 Francophiles dined and danced to the music of the Stanley Paul Orchestra to raise funds for renovation of the Alliance`s new headquarters at 810 N. Dearborn St.
Alumni of Ecole Boulle, a Paris architecture and design school celebrating its centenary, have accepted the renovation as an anniversary project and will be working through the summer on the building`s interior. Jim Bolduc of Papageorge-Haymes in Chicago is coordinating installation of components designed by the French architects. Patrick Toumarkine of Savoir Faire Inc., a French-American company, will coordinate special events in the fall to introduce the renovated building to the community. Six French banks represented in Chicago will assist with financing the project. The renovation will permit expansion of the Alliance`s French classes, as well as arts exhibitions, film showings and cooking classes.
Among guests of Eleanor and William Wood-Prince at the party were Candy Van Alen, an organizer of the annual April in Paris Ball in New York, which raises funds for several organizations, including the national Alliance; and the Marquis and Marquise Jean-Pierre de Chambrun of Washington, D.C. The marquis–a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who served in the colonial army during the American Revolution–writes and lectures on France throughout the U.S.
Greeting Alliance benefactors was Henri de Vogue, president of the Alliance`s Chicago chapter and a member of the French family that produces Clicquot champagne. A resident of the Midwest for 30 years, he now is a partner in William Blair & Co., an international traveler on behalf of his company. His wife, Priscilla, and daughters Brigitte and Ariane joined him in saluting Chicago`s French cultural center. SOURCE: Margaret Carroll.
