March 10, 2006

THERE'S THE ART of fashion, and then there’s fashion as art. In this issue we’re highlighting 13 Chicagoans who think about the body less as a hanger than as a springboard for personal expression, resculpting or renovating the human form with garments and accessories that for the most part definitely can’t be worn with jeans. They include sculptors, painters, an architect, and a graphic designer and range in experience from student to professional. Their inspiration comes from all over the map—ichibana, civil unrest in Haiti, tripe, Victorian girlhood—but they don’t clobber you over the head with their big ideas. Instead they speak their intentions softly, encouraging viewers (and confident dressers) to decide on meaning for themselves. --Liz Armstrong

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