Gift Guide
Discriminating ideas for everyone on your list: the aspiring writer, the modern-day “It” girl, the fun-loving neighbors, and the jet-setting couple whose feet rarely touch the ground
Ad Categories: Style
A Greener Gift in River North
Have a Heart
Just in time for the holiday season, the gift store Greenheart (746 N. LaSalle St.; 312-264-1625944-2544, greenheartshop.org) has opened its doors inside the Center for Cultural Interchange in River North. The Chicago store, the only location inside the United States (there is another one in Ibiza, Spain), carries fair-trade and eco-friendly products from local and international artisans. Store manager Katherine Bissell Córdova says the store is a way to use consumer power for good. “People are becoming more aware of what they’re buying and shopping is an easy way to effect positive change,” she says. You’ll find home accents like vases ($39) and bowls, fair-trade chocolates and teas, and bath and body products. The store also sells totes created from recycled rice bags made by women in Cambodia, purses made from…
To Market, To Market
This week is the official kickoff to holiday shopping season. Chain stores on the Boul Mich? Yawn. Indie markets with booze? Yay! Here are the ones on my list; if you have a tip for others, drop me a note.
1. The Merchandise Mart’s One of a Kind Show and Sale from Dec. 6 to 9. Yes, it costs money to get in ($10), and, yes, there are an abhorrent number of people selling kitten-themed potholders. But because there are literally hundreds of indie designers who attend, you’re bound to find a few whose wares jibe with your taste…
Sales Check
A roundup of sales, store openings, and shopping news in December 2007
Me & Ro Opens on Oak Street
Be Jeweled
Me & Ro (61 E. Oak St.; 312-957-8181), a jewelry line frequently seen in the pages of Vogue, has opened a Chicago store, only the fourth in the country. Prices for the silver and 10-karat gold line start at $150 for earrings, rings, and pendant necklaces, with precious jewelry running up to $40,000. Known for stackable rings and hammered metals, the line uses organic materials and precious, semi-precious, and rare stones in designs that reflect nature, so it’s appropriate that the graceful shop is decorated with dark wood and red Venetian glass walls and an in-store pond. Look for the set of three Lotus Dish stackable silver rings ($240) and a beautiful 18-karat gold rutilated quartz drop pendant ($845). Some pieces are carried exclusively in the Chicago store, such as the 18-karat gold…
Guess Hue?
This winter, the design world loves colors that combine techno with retro. We pair items with four shades we predict you’ll see a lot of in the near future.
Ritz, on the Rocks
We love retro cocktails—and the rings that go with them. No need to wait for a suitor: The only thing more stylish than a cocktail ring is the woman who buys one for herself.
Clandestine Destination
Fall Out Fashion
Clandestine Industries (952 W. Newport Ave.; 773-857-3525, clandestineindustries.com) may not be a household name yet, but its chief designer certainly is: Wilmette-born Pete Wentz, the bassist for a little band called Fall Out Boy. The line just opened its first stand-alone store in the space formerly occupied by the Lakeview Manufacturing Co., a boutique that sold the clothing-and-accessories line. Stephen Westman, who ran the former store as an offshoot of his bar, Lakeview Broadcasting Company, now owns and operates Clandestine Industries. “When I opened the Lakeview Broadcasting Company, I partnered with Clandestine and used their clothing for our uniform,” Westman says. “The opening of the Lakeview Manufacturing Co. was merely a response to the overwhelming interest people had in our…
There Goes the ‘Hood
Kudos to Nanette Lepore. There was a lot of talk about which New York boutique would be the first to pierce Damen Avenue’s indie veil. It was supposed to be Marc by Marc Jacobs, but, Lord, they’re slow (they were supposed to open in August, then it was October, now who knows when?) Others are on the horizon, including BCBG.
But when it came down to getting the lease, stocking the store, and flinging open the doors, Lepore did it first. Her store, which opened…
BLOG: Paris Fashion Week – Spring 2008
Chicago‘s associate fashion editor Elisabeth Fourmont takes you from the front rows of the runway to behind the scenes at the designer ateliers and parties of Paris Fashion Week. She also chats with Chicago retailers and models in town for the shows, and posts snapshots of the runway, the streets, and all things aesthetically pleasing.