Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.
- Mary Baber
- Gertrude Abercrombie, c. 1970s
There’s a place much better than fashion week for seeing cool outfits: art events. Usually artists are in tune with their times as much as with themselves, creating a look that’s both current and timeless, on-trend but original. Today with the opening of the documentary Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists (screening through October 9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center) comes the opportunity of appreciating the sartorial choices of an important group of artists, the Chicago Imagists. Their representational work deviated from New York-based pop art by referencing quotidian objects like comic books, pinball machines, and flea-market finds as opposed to the glossy world of advertising. If you want to know more about their art, Reader critic J.R. Jones wrote a wonderful review about the movie when it played a sold-out show at the MCA back in May. But if you’d like to check out their fabulous eyewear—the fastest, easiest way of adding personality to any look—just click below and/or go see Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists this weekend.
- William Arsenault
- Karl Wirsum, 1967
- Mary Baber
- Don Baum, c. 1970s
- Mary Baber
- Ellen Lanyon, c. 1970s
- Mary Baber
- Ted Halkin, c. 1970s
- William Arsenault
- Artist Rodney Quiriconi at the Hyde Park Art Center
- Mary Baber
- Dominick Di Meo, c. 1970s
- Chicago Sun-Times, Bob Kotalik.
- Honorable mention: No eyewear on this one, but still plenty of personality. Suellen Rocca with Curly Head, 1967
- William Arsenault
- How about these oxfords? Detail of Karl Wirsum’s hand-painted shoes at the opening of “Nonplussed Some” at Hyde Park Art Center, 1968
Hairy Who & the Chicago Imagists, through October 9, Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2600, siskelfilmcenter.org, $11.
See more Chicago street style in the Chicago Looks blog.