Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum

by Timothy A. Long

Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum features the most stunning pieces from one of the greatest costume collections in the world. From its earliest days, Chicago was viewed as a grimy upstart consumed by business and the almighty dollar. Nicknames such as hog butcher to the world, gangland, and second city persist even today. In response to this perception, a small number of wealthy women purchased and wore high fashion in the hope of claiming Chicago as chic; fashion, they believed, was a powerful way to overcome this prejudice and to re-imagine Chicago as a place of beauty, sophistication, and elegance. The Chicago History Museum, one of the city s earliest cultural institutions, now houses many of these chic creations from designers such as Worth, Poiret, Dior, Halston, Miyake, and Versace. This volume showcases the designs and the designers, as well as the women who wore them and helped make Chicago chic.