Join us for cocktails, shopping, and a panel discussion exploring the relationship between textiles and fashion with Anna Brown, Abigail Glaum-Lathbury, Rey Pador, and Jamie Hayes on Thursday, September 23rd from 6:30-9:30 pm at ANNA BROWN studio. The designers will each have work on view and for sale. Panel discussion at 7:30 pm, with cocktails and shopping before and after.
This event is in-person and we ask that all participants remain fully masked indoors. Stay tuned for more information.
The designers will draw on their own experiences to discuss the use of textiles in innovative ways in fashion. For example, Anna Brown’s work often uses textiles in beautiful ways that also limit waste- turning fabric scraps into trims or even new garments, draping and collaging them into one-of-a-kind pieces. Abigail Glaum-Lathbury’s work often parodies the elitism of luxury fashion and branding, via the creation of trompe l’oeil digital prints of luxury clothing onto silhouettes of her own design, available as free, open source files. Rey Pador brings a global perspective to fashion- he has worked in Belgium, Germany, India, and now the US. As a professor, designer, and patternmaker for internationally renowned lines such as Dries Van Noten, Rey has an expert knowledge of the ways in which the textile interacts with flat pattern, sewn silhouette, and ultimately, the body. Jamie Hayes’ collections begin with the creation of a textiles via artist collaboration, including screenprints on leather designed by Paula J. Wilson, textiles created by the Weaving Mill, hand-painted silks by Leslie Baum, and most recently, hand-loomed knits using Oaxacan wools. She also has a collection of engineered, digital prints in the works.
(Image courtesy of Abigail Glaum-Lathbury)
Abigail Glaum-Lathbury is a Chicago based artist and designer whose work explores the discursive potential found in clothing and dressing, arguing for a rethinking and transformation of the fashion system. In 2014 she co-founded the Rational Dress Society, a collective that raises questions around identity and consumption through a radical approach to inclusive sizing. Her most recent project, the Genuine Unauthorized Clothing Clone Institute (Project G.U.C.C.I.) investigates how copyright and trademark law is being leveraged by luxury conglomerates to form what can only be described as a modern sumptuary code.
Her work has been shown at the MoMA in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Nevada Museum of Art, Art in General and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York, and the Dome of Visions in Copenhagen. Her projects have been covered in the Guardian, the Paris Review, the Huffington Post and Surface Magazine among other publications. Glaum-Lathbury is an Associate Professor of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
(Image courtesy of Anna Brown)
Designer Anna Brown creates her eponymous womenswear collection in a workshop/studio located in the Pilsen neighborhood. The studio’s design practice prioritizes environmentally sensitive production of modern womenswear, emphasizing environmentally friendly fabrics, low-waste production, and a focus on longevity and reuse. The collection is produced locally, either in-studio or with local sewing contractors, and is defined by couture details and carefully sourced fabrics. The studio’s consignment program, Multiply, creates an opportunity for clients to resell their garments through the studio, in an effort to further extend the life of the pieces.
(Image courtesy of Jamie Hayes)
Jamie Hayes’ interests lie at the intersection of fashion, art, labor, and identity. Her approach is both collaborative and customized. She believes that clothes should fit one’s body (not the other way around); that people should wear what flatters and interests them rather than what someone else dictates is fashionable; that style is a form of self-expression; and that everyone in the chain of production of clothing should be paid a living wage.
She has explored these topics through her academic studies, earning a B.A. from Washington University in English Literature, a B.A. from Columbia College in Fashion Design, and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Chicago. She has worked in the fashion industry since 1999, and in the field of immigrant and labor rights since 2009. Her recent work merges these two paths: she has designed for fair trade organizations including SERRV, Intercrafts Peru, and Threads of Yunnan, and has volunteered as a Campaign Leader for Chicago Fair Trade, helping to pass an ordinance mandating that apparel procured by the City of Chicago be sweatshop-free. She is the owner and designer of slow fashion line Production Mode, and also co-designs a collection of luxury slow fashion lingerie and nightwear, Department of Curiosities. Her work has been featured in Paper Magazine, Dazed, Elle, and on the cover of Billboard Magazine.
(Image courtesy of Rey Pador)
Rey Pador is a German Filipino pattern maker and designer who is currently living and working in Chicago. Alum to the fashion department at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Rey has been working as a freelancer for a number of high fashion brands in Antwerp, Paris, Milan and internationally. Doing work for designers like Dries Van Noten, Haider Ackermann and Demna Gvasalia. Teaching design has always been a part of Rey Pador’s career path and it led him to see the world and different cultures, with teaching appointments in Belgium, Germany and India he acquired a broad range of understanding on how beautiful diversity of thought can be. His personal design work revolves around the question of Identity and trying to find answers on how living within the intersection of race, religion, sexuality and culture affects the individual or the larger group.
(Image courtesy of Jamie Hayes)
