Illinois Humanities and South Side Home Movie Project Bring Chicago Style to Art Design Chicago on September 21

The fashion show and debut of an archival film will explore Black fashion on Chicago’s south side from the 1930s through the 80s.

CHICAGO, AUGUST 28, 2024 — Illinois Humanities and the South Side Home Movie Project present Chicago Style. Chicago Style uses the power of design to unite South Side home movies, fashion archives, personal narratives, and community legacies to link past and present This multifaceted project will culminate in a fashion show and film debut scored and curated by cultural historian, radio DJ and “fashion archaeologist” Ayana Contreras on September 21st at the Green Line Performing Arts Center.  

Chicago Style brings together a five-person cohort of community members with diverse expertise and connections to fashion. Under the direction of educators, community organizers, and fashion experts AnnMarie Brown and Edvetté Jones, the Chicago Style Cohort is working with the South Side Home Movie Project archive to re-envision historical elements of everyday Black fashion, exploring the question: How does fashion thread through generations?

“To me, fashion serves as a form of powerful visual expression. The opportunity to study dimensions of those expressions (notably color and movement of garment) that are all too often flattened in historical reference materials is rare.” Contreras shared. “As part of this project, working with a trove of film full of movement and color that emanated from the South Side of Chicago as early as the 1940s has been transformative.”

“Fashion is a powerful tool for self-expression. It’s how most of us engage with the world of design in our daily lives,” Illinois Humanities Executive Director Gabrielle Lyon shared. “I love how this project gives us a way to look with new eyes and appreciate in deep ways such familiar things: home movies, back issues of Jet or Ebony, the thrift and vintage stores down the street. This project gives us a chance to shine a light on the ways people design their own identities while also showcasing the history that has made Chicago a mecca for Black fashion.”

Illinois Humanities’ Chicago Style Film and Fashion Show will take place September 21, 2024, 3:00-6:00 p.m. CT at the Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E Garfield Blvd, Chicago, IL 60637. Admission is free and pre-registration is required. Join us for a fashion-filled afternoon where history collides with the present. Dress up, see the looks, explore clothing from a local vendor, enjoy refreshments, and experience stories of Chicago's style.

Chicago Style is part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art and collaborators that highlight the voices and stories that are part of Chicago’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. Continuing into 2025, Art Design Chicago’s events and exhibitions across 30 Chicago neighborhoods and suburban communities showcase the work of hundreds of artists.