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Ad Categories: Style

Shopper: Branca

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Italian-born interior designer Alessandra Branca will open a 2,900-square-foot concept shop dedicated to her “classic, with a wink” aesthetic

Jewelry Boutique in Highland Park

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Something Old, Something New

In four short years, Jil Alberts’s jewelry pieces have graced the pages of style magazines and become a favorite of celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Heidi Klum. Although she sells around the world and domestically at places such as Bergdorf Goodman, she has opened her own studio on the North Shore—Jill Alberts Jewelry (469 Roger Williams Ave., Highland Park; 847-681-1630, jillalberts.com)—to offer Chicagoans a chance to see her creations in one space. The store is a mash-up of new pieces, untouched vintage and estate jewelry, but her signature design gesture is turning flea market finds into modern pieces. For instance…

Junk Food

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Calorie-free Pop Tarts? Hostess cupcakes as big as your head? Sign us up. I was first turned on to Pamela Michelle Johnson’s huge and hip snacks series American Still Life amid the yummy home design finds at Zella Brown in Wicker Park. Get a gander of Jonhson’s work and first major exhibition of this series at The Artist Project at Artropolis this weekend. More than 300 soon-to-be-fabulously-more-famous-names will be showing on the 8th floor of the Merchandise Mart through Monday. To meet the girl behind the goodies and more than a few of her creative friends (don’t miss f2), grab a free pass.

—BARRI LEINER

 

POPTARTS / 52″x72″ / oil on canvas / 2007
HOSTESS CUPCAKES / 64″x64″ / oil on canvas / 2007

Cool Cosmetics in Lincoln Park

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At First Blush
Anyone who has ever walked away from a makeup counter looking like Baby Jane will appreciate Colorlab Custom Cosmetics (857 W. Armitage Ave.; 773-525-9086), which operates under the philosophy that “makeup isn’t one size fits all.” The recently opened Lincoln Park arm of the Rockford-based company creates lipstick, foundation, powder, blush, and eye shadow according to each woman’s specifications. Choose a product, have a chat with a technician, and watch it come to life…

Zac Posen Gives Me Career Advice

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As fashionable as Chicago thinks it is, it’s still a major event when one of the top New York-based designers cruises into town. This week, it was Zac Posen, who brought along a full-on runway show, courtesy of Saks Fifth Avenue.

I blanked completely on the event, didn’t dress appropriately, and wandered in the stately Murphy Hall on Erie Street in a full-on turtleneck and a dress I’d accidentally shrunk in the dryer. Everyone else was head-to-toe designer; what do you do? If you’re me, hold your head up high and squeeze through the crowd to find Zac Posen for a photo…

Organic Goodies in Roscoe Village

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Let the Green Times Roll

A new Roscoe Village addition A Cooler Planet (2211 W. Roscoe St.; 773-248-1110, itsacoolerplanet.com) makes it easy to live green. Sisters Heidi Bailey and Krista White, self-taught green experts who went organic in their own life, opened the store to help others do the same. “People can get overwhelmed and we wanted to open a place to make it easier to take the first step,” Bailey says. “Anything you buy in here we have already researched,” White says. The lifestyle shop, the duo says, is designed to take care of everything from morning to night, from the U.S.D.A. certified organic skincare line Terressentials down to organic mattresses. For the home, the store stocks…

Green Goods in Oak Park

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The Home Is Always Greener. . .

It’s much easier to pay lip service to being green than to seek out the products, but Green Home Experts (823 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park; 708-937-5403, ghexperts.com) has made it a little bit easier. The new shop specializes in eco-friendly building supplies, cleaning products, and other day-to-day goods, essentially a “green alternative to…