D.B. is sartorial perfection distilled into a man. From his bowler hat and Prada satchel to his perfectly tied scarf, he is the epitome of male fashion in this understated yet luxurious look. I’ve never seen anyone look this dapper holding an umbrella before.
Hermes scarves on display
It is no surprise that Hermès is one of my favorite brands to feature on Chicago Streetstyle Scene. So imagine my delight when I heard about the Festival des Metiers (Festival of Crafts) to be held at the Oak Street boutique. I was beyond overjoyed at the chance to see how my favorite luxury goods are made. Even better, I was invited to the private VIP opening party on Thursday night to celebrate the event. Personally, I own two Hermès items – the limited-edition Chicago scarf in fuchsia and a light blue twilly.
My limited-edition Chicago scarf
I am obsessed with Hermès textiles so I spent most of my time at the Hermès private opening party watching the expert silk screener create a scarf from start to finish. Below are photos from each step of the process. This was definitely the most popular presentation of the evening.
Attendees watching the scarf demonstration
1. Step one: the artist creates the scarf design.
2. A second artist uses ink to draw each color on a different transparent sheet. Through a translator, she explained how difficult it is to take a multicolored design and think in terms of gray. The way the silk screening process works is that each color is laid down separately. The metal screens are created using these stencils.
3. When the scarves are ready to be printed, the first metal plate is laid down on a moving rail. Up to 50 scarves are printed in one single line like this.
4. The screener moves from each silk square one-by-one, using a squeegee to transfer the dye through the plate onto the silk.
5. The scarf outline is always the first design laid down in black dye.
6. The darkest colors are laid down first. This is a burgundy purple dye for the third layer. The second run was actually the Hermes copyright, which is done separately because the accent mark requires a different consistency of ink)
7. Pushing the dye through the screen in one fell swoop.
8. The scarf after three runs.
9. Explaining how the silk is gathered from the silkworm cocoon.
10. The finished product after over twenty dyes are applied to the silk.
Erin Gordon for Sarca
Alexis Cozzini, Lesley Prizant Goodman, and Carol McKinnon
This past Saturday I attended my second
Erin Gordon trunk show at
Sarca hosted by Lesley Prizant Goodman. Erin Gordon’s bracelets have gone viral within the Chicago fashion set, helped in no small part by her recent features in Time Out Chicago, Chicago Social (CS Magazine) and on Refinery29. In fact, I was wearing one of her bracelets to a VIP event at
Shrine Haberdashery and a woman came up to me to ask if my bracelet was by Erin Gordon. Make sure to stop by Sarca to check out her Spring 2011 collection. Click below to continue reading.
Sarca manager Siera Seedman (left) next to Brooke Hollingsworth (middle)
Sarca client Molly Hamilton arrived early to create her own custom set of Erin Gordon bracelets. Alexis, Siera, Erin, and her assistant Brooke all worked together to make sure Molly received the perfect combination of colors and charms. The bracelets are available with a wide variety of beads and charms, including handcuffs, pistols, skulls, feathers, Buddhas, and elephants, to name a few. There are also a wide variety of semi-precious stone beads, including jade, labradorite, quartz, lapis lazuli, turquoise, along with many more. After much debate over the combination of colors and charms, Molly was a happy customer and left with a wrist full of Erin Gordon bracelets!
Customer Molly Hamilton trying on bracelets
Building Molly’s perfect set of bracelets
I picked up a jade bracelet with a large skull bead – perfect for balancing out my sometimes overly-sweet personality. I realized it’s time to add some edge to my wardrobe and Erin Gordon is there to help!
My new Erin Gordon bracelet
Sarca is located at 710 North Wabash.
Visit
ShopSarca.com or call 312-255-0900 for more information.
