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The Walk 2011 at Millennium Park | Photos + live review

09.05.11

Chicago's fashion educated, fashion-scene sponsors and just straight-up fashion fans gathered under the tents in Millennium Park Thursday for the final presentation show from the top students at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Walk , an annual social season highlight event (presented by Swarovski this year) gathered mini collection showcases from sophomores, juniors and seniors that mixed avant-garde, street style and fashion-forward looks. The 600 attendees were enthused to see what Chicago's ascending talent had to show. Doubling in size from last year, the event attracted a swarm of media, street-style bloggers and fashion crawlers. The show began with a presentation of awards and scholarships to several students for their creative looks that soon took the catwalk. Nick Cave, artist extraordinaire and department chair, not only served as a mentor but as a scholarship presenter to the graduates. 

Each designer showed three to four pieces drawn from their final collections. No collection was the same with student themes ranging from Asian geisha (Pirada Muadsong) to urban cyclist–inspired (Abby Thomas). Personality and character shined through and left me wanting to see more from each designer, an entire collection of what they have to offer the larger fashion world, perhaps. I felt it absolutely necessary to keep my runway booklet as reference. We are likely to see some of these names: Jasmine Chong, Alex Ulichny and Alena Sacinova in New York's fashion week by 2015. The show was inspirational, creative, fresh and oozed hard work and from the students, whose collections were much more than "student's work." Many pieces got huge rounds of applause from the hard-to-impress audience.

Source: Time Out Chicago