Museum Blog

Collections volunteer Robert Blythe details the history of artifacts in our Marshall Field & Company collection. In 2006, many Chicago-area residents were crestfallen when all Marshall Field & Company stores were rebranded as Macy’s stores. A local institution, Field’s was the premier Midwestern department store with industry-leading customer service standards. Generations of Chicagoans cherish their More

As a preview to the opening of Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier, volunteer Kristin Bernstein explains the process behind building props and determining accessories for the mannequins featured in the exhibition. In Making Mainbocher, mannequins are dressed from head to toe and no detail is lost. A gifted sketch artist who defined luxury in More

In the midst of hockey season, costume collection intern Corie Azem takes a close look at the uniform of a hockey legend. When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup on home ice on June 15, 2015, the team dedicated that win to former Blackhawks standout and team ambassador Stan Mikita. Mikita played his entire More

Former CHM costume collection intern Michelle McVicker writes about a fascinating discovery she recently came across in the Museum’s archives. She is currently a MA candidate in Fashion Studies at Parsons School of Design. Pauline Trigère (1912–2002) was a French-born American designer. It would seem as though her future in fashion design was predetermined, as More

Planning an exhibition such as Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile® requires combing through the entire costume collection to find the most appropriate garments. We start this process by looking through our collection database and old catalog cards and then pulling the actual garments from storage to examine in person. For Chicago Styled, we pulled More