Research Library: Celebrating Denim

Here are some of the highlights from our August reference library theme: Denim. 

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Starkweather comes home to Chicago

It was a really wonderful day in Chicago at the Casino where Starkweather went back to its roots. The weather acted accordingly, changing from summer to fall almost overnight to set the mood for the layering and cozy wrapped up feeling you get when trying on these pieces in a setting such as the venerable building in downtown Chicago. 

It was great to have a chance to highlight the fabrics that are the most critical element of the pieces. Some favorites were the cashmere wool backed with weather proofing nylon from Colombo in Italy and the buttery lambskin leather from Bodin Joyeux in France.

Showing some pieces for Fall / Winter and some pieces for Spring, there was a feeling of harmony that fit so naturally on the fantastic women who came through to try on, discover and acquire a piece of the Starkweather story for their own wardrobe.

You read it here first: Starkweather will be back in Chicago on November 13 for a follow up show and party with  a surprise that we are anxious to reveal. 

Starkweather Instagram Highlights from 2013

follow @starkweathergram for our stream of visual stimuli 

Spring Outerwear, an Oxymoron?

 It is like a brainteaser, the process of defining ‘outerwear’ in regards to spring and summer weather. The word itself evokes cold places, wind, cocooning. But spring and summer require a light hand, giving tactile and visual cues of refreshing relief from the hot, the humid, and the sun.

Compound all of that with geographically citified garments contradicting the word’s association with the great outdoors, and outerwear just doesn’t seem like the outerwear anymore.

That is also the magic of design, being able to make something functional without it looking functional. To create a purely aesthetic attraction, only reinforced by the qualities embodied.

Like human attraction, while it might be physical features that catch your eye, the personality reveals itself upon closer examination.

What a spring jacket should do, above all, is to out-design function. The best jacket or coat is one that does not let on that it was conceived through a problem-solving ritual of utilitarian quandaries.

This most recent collection aimed to do just that (reserving the right, of course, to create certain pieces just for the sake of making something beautiful). That said, if you have any insight into what you look for in a spring jacket or any garment in the spring/summer months, please leave a comment below.

The best thing about problem solving is that it is ongoing and interactive, always improving thanks to new knowledge and new resources, and your feedback. Starkweather is always looking to innovate, to improve its product for you through every season.