The Fashion Industry Grows in Chicago

If you're a fashion school student, going to major industry shows can expose you to the real business of fashion and help inspire your own creativity.

Stylemax Show: An Industry Forum

In March 2007 Chicago hosted the Stylemax Show, a trade show created to showcase women's clothing designs and merchandising. Fashion writer Jessica Devore attended Stylemax to absorb the Chicago fashion scene and determine for herself how big a fashion hub the city really is. A graduate of fashion design school herself, she brought with her an educated sense of style. She found the clothing designs inspiring and the variety and array of merchandise overwhelming. Devore also noted in her review that establishing buying and selling relationships is a crucial part of attending big fashion shows.
Stylemax was held in Chicago's Merchandise Mart--a gathering point for the Chicago fashion design industry and the world's largest commercial building. Merchandise Mart is a wholesale design center with showrooms, conference spaces, and year-round wholesale product sales.

Starting with Fashion School

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that competition is keen in fashion design, and that employers look for designers who are "knowledgeable about textiles, fabrics, ornamentation, and fashion trends." Attending fashion school can get you a much-needed career edge and help you start making connections with other designers to forge a career.
Young designers should give themselves as many boosts as possible; fashion school and events like Stylemax are good examples. If you are a fashion design student or young designer in Chicago just getting started, shows like Stylemax should be top stops on your career path.
Sources
The Daily Vidette, "Chicago could be next fashion capital"
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Fashion Designers"

Joe Cooper is a freelance education and technology writer and edits medical literature. He holds a bachelor's in American Literature from UCLA.