Like a proud parent, the Sister Cities International Chicago/Paris Committee wanted to showcase the next generation. In this case, that meant the six Chicago design students invited to present their best couture creations alongside the work of a dozen French designers. Dubbed “Chic-A-Go-Go,” the recent Maxim’s event was a joint venture between the Sister Cities program and the French- American Chamber of Commerce. “We are going fashion forward,” declared Marsha Goldstein, committee chair of four years. The aim of the SCIC committee is to raise scholarship funds for tuition and international apprenticeships. This frenzy of design activity will culminate in master classes and a big fashion fete to be held this spring in the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier. Represented at Maxim’s were the School of the Art Institute, the International Academy of Design & Technology, Columbia College and the Illinois Institute of Art. Champagne (courtesy of Perrier Jouet) added to the buoyancy of the occasion, as did a silk piece designed by Illinois Institute of Art student Jerad Gan. Gan’s off-the-shoulder bodice flowed into a skirt textured with dozens of puckered silk bubbles, achieved when the designer bound 150 rocks into the fabric and tossed it into a pressure cooker. Describing it as “geologically Roman,” Gan confessed: “I was inspired by ‘Caligula.’ Horrible movie. Great fabrics.”
