Capital Culture: Chicago turns 'Milan of Midwest': AP

Quoted via AP:

CHICAGO — In Michelle Obama's hometown, working women hustle back and forth from home to the office in stylish shoes they can walk fast and far in. They wear chic but commonsense coats that keep them warm in the winters — and those famous sleeveless tops favored by the first lady in the summer.

Chicago's Rush street windows of Ikram Goldman's boutique. Ikram is considered to be MIchelle Obama's chief fashion advisor and intermediary with designers. It's that Midwestern pragmatism with a cosmopolitan edge, personified by Mrs. Obama, that is shining a runway spotlight on Chicago's fashion scene, say style watchers, retail experts and fashion designers.

"It shows you can fashionably be from Chicago," fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger said this month at a Chicago event where he was introduced as mentor for emerging young designers from the city. "You don't have to be from New York, Paris or Milan."

Earlier this year, The Washington Post dubbed Chicago's fashion industry, home to Obama stylist and tony boutique owner Ikram Goldman and Maria Pinto, a favorite designer of the first lady, "The Milan of the Midwest." more