6 Best Local Fashion Designers In Chicago

By Margaret Paulson in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 16, 2015 7:30PM

Did you know that in 1960, 95 percent of clothes Americans wore were made in the U.S.? By 1980, that number had dropped to 70 percent. And today? Only 1 to 2 percent of our clothing is actually made here. Thankfully, American manufacturing is starting to make a comeback. In the spirit of loving America and our little corner of it, we're highlighting some of our favorite Chicago-based designers and brands. Check out what these local brands have for fall and winter.

via The Brothers Crisp

The Brothers Crisp (handmade men's footwear)

The Brothers Crisp started when Josh Westbrook quit his job as an IT guy to learn how to make shoes. The hand-sewn moccasins are crafted by artisan shoemakers in a workshop in Hartford, Connecticut, and 80 percent of the leather is sourced from Chicago’s own Horween Leather Company. Co-founder and Chicago-based entrepreneur and art director Jourdan Smith is the expert behind marketing and manufacturing process, while Westbrook is the master cobbler with a vision. To craft each pair of handsewns, The Brothers Crisp uses vintage machinery—much of it between 80 and 150 years old and recovered from old warehouses and barns along the East Coast. The aesthetic? “We’re working on establishing ourselves with a trademark design, something that is devoid of any logos but through leatherwork is completely recognizable as our own,” Smith told us. “Think Bottega Veneta’s checked weave or miu miu's Matelassé leather work.” The Brothers Crisp currently has men’s shoes, but any of the boots can be made for women’s feet as well.

Currently, you can The Brothers Crisp wares through their website.

via Leche Libre

Leche Libre (edgy womenswear for breastfeeding)

The vision for Leche Libre came to Andrea Newberry after she had two children and recognized that the cultural “talk” around becoming a mom was that “You don’t get to be an independent and urban woman and have a life [anymore].” But Newberry didn’t want to change her entire life when she had kids. “I couldn’t find any clothes to breastfeed in that matched my style and lifestyle—edgy and urban.” So Newberry decided to create them, officially launching Leche Libre in December 2014. Leche Libre uses end of run materials (they would be thrown away otherwise) from various Chicago warehouses, and everything is made by a production sewer in Pilsen, which has been a woman-owned business for the past 20 years.

Leche Libre just put out a limited-run, comfortable knit sweatshirt dress in camouflage. Newberry likes using studs and tactical prints to “play with a masculine element in breastfeeding apparel because breastfeeding and being a mother is so feminine." In that same vein, Leche Libre has a motorcycle-style nursing hoodie coming out in late 2015.

You can currently buy Leche Libre’s products on their website.

via Glass House Shirtmakers

Glass House Shirtmakers (modern menswear with vintage vibe)

Daniel Bernardo’s mother taught him to sew 17 years ago and he began making his own stuff and altering things he had. Glass House Shirtmakers was born from the marriage of Bernardo’s DIY spirit and interest in sustainability. Three years in, he’s built a solid brand, offering slim-fitting, sustainable shirts that have a vintage vibe but high-quality construction and modern tailoring, and doing his part to “change the paradigm around fashion and where and how people buy it.” Glass House’s shirts and scarves are made in the US (currently Chicago) from hemp, recycled polyester, organic cotton, and deadstock—material made a long time ago.

Bernardo says texture-rich pieces are big for fall, and Glass House is serving up a new pima cotton shirt made from deadstock material woven in the 1980s in Switzerland.

You can currently buy Glass House Shirtmakers' stuff on their website and in four Chicago boutiques: Meyvn in Logan Square, Dovetail in West Town, Independence on Oak, and Penelope’s on Division

Leather dress, via Production Mode

Production Mode (women’s and men’s leather clothing and accessories)

After working on labor rights in the garment industry in both Chicago and across the globe—from Peru to China—as a social worker, Jamie Hayes missed the tangible nature of design work. She launched Production Mode in January 2015 to effect change from within the industry—and make cool stuff, too. Production Mode sources its leather from Horween (using non-carcinogenic vegetable tanning) and produces made-to-order garments here in Chicago that are structured yet feminine, with an emphasis on unusual surface treatments.

Haynes says, "As a small designer, I can’t compete on pricing but Production Mode can compete on quality: quality of service, our story, and by showing people where things are made."

You can currently purchase items from Production Mode through their website, at Department of Curiosities on Fridays between 12 and 7pm, Chicago Design Museum, Humboldt House, or Havlan & West.

men's shirt via Knowhere Clothing

Knowhere Clothing (menswear + womenswear)

Avid cyclist Jared Honn realized that “one of the toughest things for a cyclist to do is to dress correctly based on which season it is” As he began looking at the technical aspects of clothes and how they’re built, Honn also became interested in the environmental and human aspects of manufacturing clothing. Honn began designing T-shirts, underwear, and button-ups for his brand Knowhere Clothing using organic fibers and all-natural, medicinally rich dyes. Knowhere launches in early 2016 using fair trade, living wage-paying manufacturers in both India and the US, including WORK + SHELTER—an India-based nonprofit founded by Chicagoan Theresa VanderMeer that provides a safe space and livable wage to vulnerable women.

The company's motto? “Made here. Made there. Made fair.”

Upon launch, you can purchase Knowhere Clothing through the company's site.

Whiteman wears a sample pattern from Pintl + Keyt

Pintl + Keyt (Scandinavian-style womenswear)

After working as a freelance designer for several fair-trade Chicago-based brands, trained textile designer Shifra Whiteman decided to start her own brand. Pintl + Keyt’s aesthetic is Scandinavian (think Marimekko): looser-fitting clothing that sways further away from the body with colorful, contemporary, and funky prints. Whiteman teamed up with other Chicago-based designers Leah Whiteman and Katie Chappuis to design one skirt, one top, and one dress, coming up Summer 2016. Pintl + Keyt will also use India-based Work + Shelter for production and organic cottons sourced from India.

The company says, “We are designers first and foremost and we refuse to have our products made by someone that’s exploited.”

Chicagoans will be able to purchase items from Pintl + Keyt’s site later this year. For now, keep up with them on Instagram.