Room on the Rack
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“We’re really a cross between a gallery and a shop,” she explains. Fifteen local designers sell their fashions through the co-op, paying Arsenault a 10 percent commission and working behind the counter for a day and a half each month. Arsenault estimates that as many as 40 designers currently sell their fashions in Chicago; she hopes to increase the shop’s roster to 20 eventually, and she’s prominently displayed her designers’ names over individual sections. While the shop currently stocks only women’s wear, she plans to expand into men’s shirts and ties.
If Chicago fashion has a distinctive look, she says, it’s characterized by solid shape, good use of fabric, and superb construction. Among the designers at A. Arsenault are Beata Kania, known for her exquisite hand-detailing; Lou Hong, whose baggy, cross-cultural designs feature mixed prints and three-dimensional pockets; and Christopher Lam and Calvin Holm, who specialize in casual women’s wear. The shop also carries scarves by Nancy Zwick, European-style beaded jewelry by Sophia Forero, and handmade hats by local milliners Laura Whitlock and Eia.
If the exhibit has a problem, it’s the near absence of work reflecting the white-collar experience. According to exhibit organizers, artists are naturally attracted to the more dramatic imagery associated with blue-collar work, though Marcheschi says that more than 50 percent of the CFL’s membership is now comprised of white-collar employees. Yet the CFL’s member unions seem equally enamored of these romantic images from labor’s past: many works in the 1996 show were bought by unions and now decorate the walls of union meeting halls and offices.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Andrea Arsenault photo by Eugene Zakusilo.
