Laura Vaicekauskas designs, cuts, sews, sells and ships her ”Mummies”
collection from a third-floor walkup above a flower shop on Milwaukee Avenue near North and Damen Avenues.
Becky Bisoulis designs and supervises her sample room from her tree-filled, brick-and-ivory offices and loft in River North, where she was a pioneer settler after outgrowing her Near North design studio.
Richard Dayhoff thinks out his design ideas while traveling between his showroom/office/workroom in the Apparel Center, his official headquarters, and his production facilities on the Far West Side.
Hino and Malee create and scrutinize the making of their two collections in their antiseptic plant, decorated with orchids here and Memphis furniture there, located just east of the elevated tracks on North Ravenswood Avenue.
They are part of the singular, vigorous and very colorful breed of fashion designers working in and around Chicago who are as individual in their choice of workspaces as they are in their specific styles.
They are not alone, of course. There are others who are handpainting silks or T-shirts, knitting shawls or molding earrings, working out of high-rises or suburban ranch-house basements.
Some have been in business more than a dozen years, others are filling their first orders from people other than their best friends.
Their number has multiplied in the last few years, but they have grown in a more significant way. Says Susan Glick, the Chicago Apparel Center`s fashion director: ”They have a new maturity, a sense of sureness that hasn`t always existed before. They have a new fashion confidence that is enabling them to move forward creatively.” And, she adds, ”They`re selling!” which certainly is a surefire boost to any designer`s or artist`s creativity.
One of the factors behind the success of designers who are making strides is having a focus, a clear point of view. Glick says, ”They don`t all look alike.” Dorothy Fuller, executive vice president of Merchandise Mart properties and director of the Apparel Center, who has watched the local apparel industry and design community shrink and swell in number over the last few decades, says, ”The infinite variety of looks and people is what makes this a very special market. When so many stores seem repetitious because they carry the same big designer names, it is a pleasure to see the labels of Chicagoans who have an identity of their own.”
Chicago has long had an apparel industry anchored by large firms. Hartmarx recently celebrated its 100th anniversary with a rather enviable total annual sales volume of more than a billion dollars. There is a sprinkling of companies-some with third- and fourth-generation management-with sales volumes in the $30- and $40-million category.
But here and on the following pages we introduce a quintet of designers-all photographed in their work areas-who represent the current generation of new creative entrepreneurs offering women their own special views of fashion. LAURA VAICEKAUSKAS
Why Mummies for my label? I see the cloth and the body as two equal parts. The fusion when they come together is very exciting to me,” says 29-year-old, Lithuanian-born Laura Vaicekauskas. ”I design for someone with confidence, someone who allows this interaction between body and clothes.”
A graduate of the Fashion Design Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who taught piano before she became intrigued with experimenting with textures, she says, ”My instincts and the fabrics lead, and I just follow. I play and I drape, and the results may be quite unexpected.”
For fall, her collection is totally in ivory, coffee or black jersey with decorative collages using covered industrial cord and rubber circles. For summer, she used filmy gauze, draping it somewhat like Austrian curtains.
Although she has been designing for five or six years and City has sold some of her things, her distribution, she admits, is limited. ”People like my clothes, but sometimes stores resist because, perhaps, they think the customer might not be there for something strange, something that has personality. Some do see something strange when they first look at my clothes, but they get used to it, and then they see the beauty. I understand that. What is normal and simple and not outrageous to me might look quite odd to some people. Personally, I would wear my things, even if I didn`t design them. Yes, I would wear them.”
BECKY BISOULIS
Though the name Becky Bisoulis and the word lace are synonymous to those who have followed this designer`s career for nearly a dozen years, Bisoulis herself believes ”romantic” is the all-encompassing word that delineates her particular style.
She started doing bridal gowns of antique lace and became known for her very feminine and ladylike dresses, both sylphlike and ballgown grand. Then she went on to create unique fashions blending various laces with totally unexpected fabrics-a filmy lace with sensual matte jerseys, perhaps a more substantial lace with lush terry cloth or with casual gauzes and then Chantilly with buttery suedes.
Fantasy dresses have been her forte and still can be found in her collections, she says, because they will always be her signature. But best-sellers have come to include citified jerseys, and her personal favorites have become the dramatic designs that range from femme fatale to minimal suits in luxurious fabrics.
”I`d like to think that there`s a greater sense of adventure and drama in my clothes now. I`m braver, bolder. More confident.”
She has also started a collection of separates called Bebecka specifically for women who work and travel.
”I`ll always offer something simple, but something special is really my thing.”
HINO AND MALEE
Seven years ago, when they began working as a team, Hino and Malee shared one cutting table and all the work involved in putting out their first collection. Today, there are five cutting tables-and far more important to this gracious couple-70 employees who make the clothes and get them into some 350 stores from coast to coast.
”Our slogan is still the same,” says Hino. ”Be modern. Sometimes there might be an influence from the past-maybe some inspiration from the `30s-but you cannot tell, because we do it a modern way.”
They`re also staunch in holding on to other signatures: oversized jackets, very slim skirts, decorative/functional snaps, an oilcloth type of fabric. But now, they also offer big jackets with shapely definition, slender skirts long and short. They are pleased that their clothes have this kind of continuity, that they are recognizable via their strong shapes and frequently by a distinctive detail as well.
Malee smiles at the thought of a collar that is a particular favorite, a trapunto-stitched one that stands up and almost has wings, a technical feat that leaves her with mixed emotions. ”I liked it very much when it was first made, but when it comes to production, it`s not such a favorite any more.”
RICHARD DAYHOFF
Every Sunday I scout out every store. I look at women all the time to see what they`re wearing,” says Richard Dayhoff, who researches street clothes to create fashions desirable to contemporary women. He describes his clothes as
”modern, clean. I believe in the less-is-more-thing but not in minimal minimal.”
A graduate of the International Academy of Design, Dayhoff has been in business for two years and already enjoys the success of being carried by several major stores scattered around the country.
”Fabric is my thing. My trademarks are wool jersey and worsted wool crepe, and I guess they`ll always be my constants. But I like to add new dimension by using them in a different ways-a jersey with a rippled effect, stretch jersey. I try to come up with fabrics that say something. Like mohair for texture, elasticized puckered things, crinkled washable silks. Fabric speaks first, then color, then shape.
”I take away as much as I can. I always think, `What if we don`t put a button on it? Would it make it less like everyone else`s? More interesting?` I want my clothes to be well thought out from the inside out.”
