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SpringFashion

Special

May 12, 2006

Section One Letters 3ColumnsHot Type 4How the MSM covered (or didn’t)Stephen Colbert

The Straight Dope 5Does oil really come from dinosaurs?

The Works 8“Property tax relief ” demystified

Our Town 12Baseball Prospectus’s Christina Kahrl;Garden in a City

ReviewsMusic 24Scott Walker, The Drift

Movies 28Art School Confidential

Theater 30Don DeLillo’s Love-Lies-Bleeding at Steppenwolf

Books 32Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire; Hostile Takeoverby David Sirota, Confessions of a Former Dittohead byJim Derych, and Lapdogs by Eric Boehlert

PlusWhat Are You Selling? 14Bailiwick Repertory throws a rummage sale.Free Shit 16Breakfast for momInk Well 35This week’s crossword: “And . . . Cut”

ON THE COVER: JIM NEWBERRY (HAT), MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (COLBERT), CHARLES STECK (KAHRL), ROB WARNER (TULIP)

continued on page 20

Big Imagination

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Dresses by Soo ChoiBy Liz Armstrong and Heather Kenny

T here’s the art of fashion, and then there’s fashion asart. In this issue we’re highlighting 13 Chicagoanswho think about the body less as a hanger than

as a springboard for personal expression, resculpting orrenovating the human form with garments and accessoriesthat for the most part definitely can’t be worn with jeans.They include sculptors, painters, an architect, and agraphic designer and range in experience from student toprofessional. Their inspiration comes from all over themap—ichibana, civil unrest in Haiti, tripe, Victoriangirlhood—but they don’t clobber you over the head withtheir big ideas. Instead they speak their intentions softly,encouraging viewers (and confident dressers) to decideon meaning for themselves. LA

Thirteen Chicagoans who make fashion a real art

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CHICAGO READER | MAY 12, 2006 | SECTION ONE 19

KELLY BRESLINThe only guideline artist KellyBreslin has when creating theone-of-a-kind jewelry and hand-bag charms that make up herline, Litha, is that one side has tobe different from the other. Shesays this comes from her study ofichibana, the Japanese art offlower arranging, which stressesman’s relationship with nature,tying together “the way thingsgrow out and what you findpleasing,” she says. Often refer-encing, if not incorporating,nature—in hand-dyedbits of fabric tiedonto chain tolook likelittleflowersor hunksof driftwood,for instance—her jewelryhas an earthydurability butalso an etherealprettiness.“Ichibana dic-tates you workon three levels—heaven, earth, andman—but you canbreak any rule,” shesays. “It’s one ofthose practices whereif you know all therules it just gives you amindfulness about theway you work.” LAPenelope’s, luckymountain.com

MARY BROGGER Best known for her bronzememorial at Haymarket Squareand her sheet-steel curtains,sculptor Mary Brogger says she’sinterested in navigating the spacebetween feminine and masculine.She makes the curtains with a

20 CHICAGO READER | MAY 12, 2006 | SECTION ONE

plasma cutter, a wandlike toolthat uses electricity and pressur-ized gas to cut through metal.“When you touch it to steel it’llblow a hole in it really easily,” shesays. “It completely eradicates themacho thing of steel. It’s so easy.So I started making femininepatterns that all reference interi-or design or fabric design orthings that are relegated to thefeminine world.”

In December Brogger partici-pated in a fashion and perform-ance extravaganza at the AbbeyPub, where she sent out medieval-looking yokes of metal beadchain, strategically hand-stitchedto stay aligned. The material wasfrom 12-foot curtains, salvagedfrom the demolition of a subur-ban McDonald’s corporate ball-room. “We scavenged so much ofthis that it broke the suspensionspring on my Jeep,” Brogger says.Her models, wearing white jodhpurs and not much elsebesides the yokes, looked atonce butch and vulnerable.

Brogger’s first crack at therunway was at a 2003 show atOpen End Gallery that riffed on

the theme of “fashionism,” a nod to fascist lean-

ings in both theBush admin-

istrationand the

designworld. Brogger

sewed more tradi-tional garments for

the show, but dis-played them with a

twist: “I happened tobe at that time revisit-

ing an interest in aparticular sculpture,”she says, “a 1933 o∞cial

portrait of Mussolini by[Renato] Bertelli. It was

his profile spun 360degrees.” Brogger made

plastic helmets of her ownprofile and stuck them onall her models, “so I was thedictator of my fashion,” shesays. LA

CASTROCastro’s style used to be abouthow big his clothes could bewithout falling completely off hisbody. “I was wearing a size 42,”says the trim designer. Then in2001 he took a trip to Europe. “Iwent to Amsterdam in baggypants and I came back in straightlegs,” he says. “All my friends waslike, ‘Man, is you gay?’ ”

One night he went out to aclub in Toledo, where he’s from,in his new tight jeans. “A dudejust started fighting me. That’swhat really got me. The guyripped my jeans,” he says. “So Ipatched ’em up and hooked ’emup and dyed ’em. And I prayedthat day. I was like, ‘If I got it, letme know now,’ ’cause I wasn’tgonna waste my time.”

He’s been designing ever since,making hand-dyed T-shirts withAfrican mask appliques and cre-ating cotton-candy-light tops outof raw silk chiffon. He’s currentlyrefashioning men’s shirts into

more feminine shapes, includinga collection of outrageouswomen’s button-down shirtswith huge bishop sleeves, someincorporating four fabrics in thesame color, all for one client. Notlong ago he had a nightmareabout a cockroach, so he made acotton dress with a tail that qui-etly splits open and straps thataccentuate the waist, creating aninsectlike silhouette—againreconfiguring something uglyinto something desirable. LAArt Effect, Casa de Soul, RobinRichman

SOO CHOISoo Choi’s ladylike designsalways come with a quirk: ablack dress has lace around thecollar and a bubble-shaped white

petticoat protruding for about afoot under the hem; a demurewhite baby-doll wedding dresshas a half circle of white beadsdraped across the back like abackward necklace. Choi hascited Belgian designers like AnnDemeulemeester and BrunoPieters as influences, and herwork has similar structured,architectural shapes, but there’s aVictorian aspect to her clothes aswell—which can also be seen inthe ornate, spidery illustrationsshe made for her Web site,soosline.com. “I’ve been driven tothat aesthetic, something that’smore romantic,” says Choi. Latelyshe’s been using a lot of black,too. “There’s something sereneand surreal about black,” shesays. “It can be a very rigiddesign, but when it comes tofitting it to a person, it’s very ele-gant and beautiful.” She’s alsobeen making chunky, messy jew-elry using chains, beads, fabric,and charms.

Choi, whose family moved toChicago from Korea when shewas ten (with a brief stop inSchaumburg), is currently inAntwerp, where she’s landed asix-month internship with youngdesigner Tim Van Steenbergen.While she’s there she’s studyinghow a city can function as a fash-ion center away from the hypeand glitz of Paris, New York, andMilan. “In a smaller city it’s notabout where you’re at; it’s aboutfinding an environment that youfeel comfortable in,” she says. “Ihave no desire to be in New York.At the same time, Chicago isreally lacking in resources, infashion infrastructure and pro-duction. . . . It was important forme to be [in Antwerp] to under-stand how to compromise.” HKHejfina, soosline.com

MOIRE CONROYFor her latest collection—herfinal project at the School of theArt Institute—Moire Conroydecided not to make any pat-terns. “I just put it on a [dress]

form and did it,” she says. “If astitch dropped, a stitch dropped.”Inspired by dadaism, her elegantgarments highlight some parts ofthe body and distort the rest.What appears to be an open-backed sweater with mohairbraiding flows down to become amini apron dress. A collar piecethat lies flat in front gainsdimension toward the back,becoming a bouquet of trianglesspilling into an inverted corsetthat’s wide at the waist, tight

across the hips. Her men’s suit ismeant to be worn by a woman.What she considers perhaps herriskiest piece, a feminine, ethere-al dress, has an explosion of tri-angle-shaped ruffles at one hip.At first, she says, “I thought,What am I doing? It was almostlike ruining it.” LA

continuedfrom page 1

Handbag charmby Kelly Breslin

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Bead-chain yokeby Mary Brogger

Brogger’s 360-degree profile

Shirt dressby Castro

Moire Conroy’striangular ruffles

Soo Choi’swedding dress

Spring Fashion

HEIDI DAKTERHeidi Dakter would like morepeople to make spectacles ofthemselves. “I love spectaclebecause it can happen anywhere,”says the 24-year-old artist, whoworked at the Circus WorldMuseum in Baraboo, Wisconsin,as a teenager and more recentlyhas helped design costumes andsets for Blair Thomas’s puppettroupe and Redmoon Theater.She’s been known to tromparound town in her own big-tent-ready designs, like a pair of brightred bulbous clown shoes or atall majorette hat embla-zoned with a picture ofMother Teresa. “It is reallyincredible, the conversa-tions that arise,” she says.

In 2004 sheaccompanied amedical mission toHaiti, where shewas struck byHaitians’ limitedopportunities. “I feltlike everyone shouldthink about that a lit-tle more,” she says,and she came up withthe idea of usingclothing as a conduitfor political mes-sages. She createdapronlike skirtsembroidered withportraits of Jean-Bertrand Aristideand other playersin Haiti’s nation-al drama; her

next collection will feature imagesof current events embroidered onoversize white shirts. “It’s not hot,sexy fashion, it’s more intriguing,”

she says. “You feel like youcould go up and ask some-

one about it.” HKRobin Richman

ABIGAIL GLAUM-LATHBURYFor her finalproject at the

School of the ArtInstitute, seniorAbigail Glaum-

Lathbury chosethe theme of tripe.“It’s got this incredi-ble honeycomb pat-tern,” she says. “Ilike [taking] some-thing that’s verydisgusting andmaking it intosomething exqui-

site.” She madehundreds of latexcasings from aplaster mold—they do lookdisconcertinglylike the floppyslices of offal

sold in thesupermarket—

CHICAGO READER | MAY 12, 2006 | SECTION ONE 21

and applied them to fabric orsewed them together. In onepiece the sewed-together piecesare wrapped around a corset,giving the garment what Glaum-Lathbury calls an “awkward, jolt-ing movement.” A lot of herclothes move strangely: onedress has an exaggerated,uneven bustle, upon whichis layered a long skirt madeof elastic, resulting in amotion that Glaum-Lathbury describes as“wiggly and noodly.”

Her spring ready-to-wear collection usesmore-accessibleshapes: a pair of long,narrow walkingshorts have pintuckdetails that createparallel lines downthe legs; the fabricof an asymmetri-cal sleevelesswhite top rip-ples across thetorso, gatheringaround the body like acloud. HKHabit

VINCENT T.HAQ-MASTRIONNIFor his junior project in thefashion department at theSchool of the Art Institute,Vincent T. Haq-Mastrionniimagined a little girl growingup in Philadelphia in the late19th century, and then heimagined her possessions.As she grew up, hefigured, her thingswould deteriorate—her dolls would loselimbs, her minia-ture tea set would chip, her doll-house would go ramshackle—

and these destroyed objectswould collect in the attic. “Thesethings are looking for her,” hesays. “They’ve become ghosts ofchildhood.”

From this idea he created acollection of three outfits, whichtook him a year to finish andincorporate hand-dyed doilies, ataxidermied hummingbird,porcelain doll parts, and antiquewatch guts, plus two collabora-tions with sculptors: a woodenbreastplate carved from a singlelog and a porcelain corset with amatching porcelain scalp. Acomically voluminous silk skirttilted almost completely sidewaysand embroidered with ceramictrinkets and a sideways veil madeof 100-year-old stiffened lace aremeant to look windblown, as ifthe wearer were “standing next toan open window with the breezeblowing through a tattered cur-tain,” he says.

A couple years ago he made anaccordionlike bolero jacketinspired by an Elizabethan ruffand paired it with a collapsiblefarthingale—a 16th-century bul-bous undergarment—made ofleather and horsehair. Mostrecently he constructed a trenchcoat out of seven black umbrel-las; still on his to-do list areglass-bowl shoes, a pair of pantsthat’s actually three pairs sewnback-to-back (“you put onwhichever ones you feel like”),boots resembling oil spillingupward, and a dress with a trainthat looks like its shadow. LA

SARAH HEINSarah Hein, another senior at theSchool of the Art Institute,admits that a lot of her clothesare unwearable: arms and handsare wrapped in fabric or stitchedto the sides of a dress, or billowypants feature an uncomfortablylow crotch. The clothing’s effecton the wearer brings to mind thecareful gait of a geisha or thenoble immobility of statues.

At a group show at Open EndGallery last fall, Hein sent hermodels out cupping large rockslike offerings to the gods. Herserene aesthetic hints at a worldbeyond this one, sometimesinadvertently. “My last piecesended up being a little moreghostlike than I intended,” shesays of a collection of clothesmade from antique silk kimonos.“They don’t want to keep theircontinued on page 22

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Heidi Dakter’sclown shoes

Abigail Glaum-Lathbury’stripe-inspired dress

Vincent T.Haq-Mastrionni’sumbrella trench

Dress bySarah Hein

22 CHICAGO READER | MAY 12, 2006 | SECTION ONE

old kimonos in Japan becausethey say the soul is left in thegarment. I feel like by reusingthe old silk I was bringing some-thing back out.” She lent theghostly garments some of thesolidity of the physical world bysewing more rocks directly intothem—she liked the contrast oftheir weight against the light silkand the way they pulled and dis-torted the fabric. “I think a lotof things are beautiful thatother people don’t,” shesays. “A lot of people arelooked over that arebeautiful.” Hein’sfirst solo show isMay 25 at theGarfield ParkConservatory.HK

DIETERKIRKWOODLike most design-ers, Dieter Kirkwoodworks on a dress form to develophis ideas, but instead of fabric heuses stuff like tissue paper andSaran Wrap. “It’s more of a cre-ative outlet,” says Kirkwood, whostudied sculpture before transfer-ring to Columbia College’s fash-ion design program in 2001. “Thechallenge is trying to incorporatedetails from them into pieces thatare modernist and a little stream-lined,” like translating the curveof a paper-and-wire dress’s hemto the closure of a melton woolfelt coat. Kirkwood’s day job isdoing graphic design for theColumbia College library, and inhis latest collection he uses silk-screened prints of trees, some-times blown up to look abstract.“You can see small details whenyou get closer,” he says. “A lot ofmy pieces are about the smallerdetails, I like to say.” HK

MAX LOHRBACHMany of Max Lohrbach’s vintage-looking hats feature tinyhandmade creatures: a monkeymade of fur and leather, forinstance, or a kitten dressed uplike a tailor in a little coat.“Animals are a traditional hatthing,” he says. “A lot of my hatsare based on historical styles, butthey’re a little more fantastic.”Lohrbach, a recent Art Institutegrad who clerks and creates storedisplays at Ragstock by day,found himself drawn to thelabor-intensive art of millinery,

where he can indulge hisrigorous attention to detail ona smaller, more manageablescale than with clothing. “I likeconstructing a lot, just figuringout how to put things together,”he says. Lohrbach says he’susually too shy to wear his owndesigns, but doesn’t thinkothers should be. “I would lovefor someone to be brave andwear them around.” HK

DANNY MANSMITHDanny Mansmith shuns the

serger—a sewing machinethat binds raw edges

with thread, makinghems easy and quick.

“I like homespunkinds of things,”

he says. Theintricate,

Asian-influ-enced

designs forMan-

smith’slabel, Scrap,

have a grandma-chic appeal, quiltlike

and homey, but they’re alsoimpressive feats of craft, beauti-fully finished inside and out.

Mansmith, who used to sew foranother local designer, deals inthe soft arts: paper-and-clothdolls, fiber sculptures, andclothes. “I think of it all thesame,” he says. “Some peoplefocus on the fashion aspect, butI’m not a fashion designer.” Helasted a semester and a half atthe American Academy of Artdowntown before dropping outand teaching himself garmentconstruction by taking a seamripper to jeans and thrifted suits.

Mansmith likes recycling sec-ondhand materials. Once, afteran artist he knew threw out acanvas he’d been painting on,Mansmith rescued it, dyed it, cutand sewed it, and attachedsleeves made from an army blan-ket, turning it into a jacket. For a2004 exhibition in a WickerPark loft he made a men’s suitout of paper and fabric andsewed pieces of broken LPs allover it. Much of his clothing hasan organic feel—he plays with sil-houettes by drawing out bulbouswads of fabric in unexpectedplaces. “I like things to look hap-hazard but lie right,” he says. LAHabit, Surrender

ANNIE MOHAUPTAnnie Mohaupt’s line of hand-made, customizable sandals,Mohop, made its debut at theRenegade Craft Fair inSeptember, and a month latershe quit her job as an architect towork on shoes full-time out ofthe basement of her Avondaletwo-flat. Mohaupt, a vegetarian,had trouble finding nonleathershoes that were both comfortableand attractive. “A lot of architectsare into clean lines, and I reallywanted to make a shoe thatlooked good,” she says. She cameup with a slender wooden designwith a patent-pending system ofelastic loops through which the

wearer can thread ribbons andstraps for an almost endless variety of looks.

“I was racking my brains formonths, trying to figure out howto make the top of the shoes,” shesays, when she hit on the idea ofthe loops. She went throughdozens of prototypes until shefound a type of elastic—actuallythin bungee cord—strongenough to hold up to everydaywear. She still makes the shoes inher basement shop, sawing out a

plywood core and applying dif-ferent wood veneers, gluing on asole made of recycled rubber tires,and molding them into shapeovernight. The shoes are comfort-able, she says, because their shapedistributes weight along thelength of the foot. The footbedsare screen-printed with Mohaupt’sabstract and floral designs. “It’sfun for me, trying to develop mydrawing skills as well as my shoe-making skills,” she says. HKWolfbait & B-girls, mohop.com

ART EFFECT934 W. Armitage | 773-929-3600

CASA DE SOUL1919 W. Division | 773-252-2520

HABIT1951 W. Division | 773-342-0093

HEJFINA1529 N. Milwaukee | 773-772-0002

PENELOPE’S1913 W. Division | 773-395-2351

ROBIN RICHMAN2108 N. Damen | 773-278-6150

SURRENDER5225 N. Clark | 773-784-4455

WOLFBAIT & B-GIRLS3131 W. Logan | 312-698-8685

WHERE TO BUY

continued from page 21

Spring Fashion

Paper-and-wire dressby Dieter Kirkwood

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Coat byDanny Mansmith

Mohop sandals by Annie Mohaupt

Felt hat byMax Lohrbach

Keep in ' i t I nd ie !

CHICAGO READER | mAy 12, 2006 | SECTION ONE 23