PM Fashion Presentation at Sofitel Magnificent Mile Chicago

This Sunday, March 3, 6 pm: Produc­tion Mode Fash­ion Presen­ta­tion at the Sofi­tel Magnif­i­cent Mile

Please join us this Sunday, March 3 at 6 pm at the Sofi­tel Chicago Magnif­i­cent Mile for cham­pagne, hors d’oeuvres, and a fash­ion presen­ta­tion! Produc­tion Mode designer Jamie Hayes will present about the line and her design process while Produc­tion Mode designs are shown by models. We’ll also have a selec­tion of the line (includ­ing a few new pieces!) on hand for you to view and shop before and after the presen­ta­tion. This event is free and open to the public. Invite a friend for an evening of slow fash­ion Sunday, March 3, 6 pm Sofi­tel Chicago Magnif­i­cent Mile 20 E. Chest­nut St. Chicago, IL 60611 New Collec­tion Coming Soon!   Yarn for the new collec­tion has arrived! This very special wool comes to us from the Bi Daüü coop­er­a­tive, a group of Zapotec arti­sans from Teotitán del Valle in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. After being spun and natu­rally dyed using cochineal and indigo, the yarn was sent to Philadel­phia to be wound on cones in order to pass through the Weav­ing Mill’s dobby loom. Next we are wait­ing on some adjust­ments to the loom to acco­mo­date this very special yarn. Mean­while, the Weav­ing Mill’s Emily Winter will be work­ing up some yardage on her hand loom, engi­neered espe­cially for the silhou­ettes we will make with it. This project is funded by a grant from the Chicago Depart­ment of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Keep an eye out for the launch of the collec­tion some­time this summer!

Production Mode Feature in NS Modern Luxury

Produc­tion Mode in the April issue of NS Modern Luxury, featur­ing our 100% wool felt top and vegetable tanned leather skirt. Full arti­cle on our upcom­ing trunk show at Exhibit Wilmette can be found here.

Production Mode Voted “Best Local Line” in Make it Better Magazine

Thank you to Make it Better maga­zine for naming us “Best Local Line” in their Green issue. Read the full arti­cle here …

Chicago Woman Magazine Names Jamie Hayes one of Chicago’s 20 Women at the Top of Their Game

Production Mode Spring News & Events

Join us, March 14–18, for The Fair, a curated, shopable exhibit at the Evanston Art Center of some of our favorite Chicago design­ers. THE FAIR HOURS: THU/FRI 11am-6pm, SAT/SUN 11–3pm The Fair brings together inde­pen­dent fash­ion design­ers arti­sans and collec­tives to present their current spring/summer collec­tions in a unique sales event bene­fit­ting the Evanston Art Center. As a part of the ongo­ing SHAPE OF NOW fash­ion resi­dency series curated by Katrin Schn­abl, the public will have the oppor­tu­nity to shop a curated selec­tion of fash­ion, acces­sories and objects created by the partic­i­pat­ing design­ers and guest artists at THE FAIR, a unique art-meets-fash­ion pop-up show­room at the Evanston Art Center. Each collec­tion offers a unique and refined point-of-view, with garments and items that are care­fully crafted in small series. Whether the focus is on acces­si­bil­ity and collab­o­ra­tion through fash­ion as cham­pi­oned by the bright and play­ful, yet seri­ous work of Radi­cal Visi­bil­ity Collec­tive, sustain­abil­ity and ethi­cal manu­fac­tur­ing prac­tices via ‘slow fash­ion’ as in Jamie Hayes’ Produc­tion Mode, tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion seen in Anke Loh’s knitwear, or on elevat­ing the sensual mate­ri­al­ity of garments and objects through arti­sanal atten­tion, such as Gillion Carrara’s jewelry as well as Andrea Reyn­ders’ and Anna Brown’s collec­tions, new design forms are artic­u­lated through these care­ful consid­er­a­tions. By doing so, design­ers open up new ways of collab­o­ra­tion and collec­tive engage­ment, and create fash­ion as an oppor­tu­nity to partic­i­pate and express our iden­tity by connec­tion to what is impor­tant to us. Featured Design­ers include: SHAPE OF NOW RESIDENTS +Abigail Glaum-Lath­bury +Alex Ulichny +Ayrun Dismuke of Misan­thrope: +Katrin Schn­abl +Kristin Mari­ani +Radi­cal Visi­bil­ity Collec­tive INVITED (GUEST) DESIGNERS +Andrea Reyn­ders +Anke Loh +Anna Brown +Depart­ment of Curiosi­ties +Gerry Quin­ton +Gillion Carrara +Jack Cave +Produc­tion Mode The Fair will be on display in our First Floor Gallery from March 14 — 18, 2018. THE FAIR HOURS: Thurs­day, March 15: 11am — 6pm Friday, March 16: 11am — 6pm Satur­day, March 17: 11am — 3pm Sunday, March 18: 11am — 3pm RELATED EVENTS: Designer Panel Discus­sion: Satur­day, March 17 at 1PM This panel discus­sion will offer a window into the creative prac­tices of our design­ers, who will be on hand to intro­duce their work and to share insights into their processes and stories. LEARN MORE HERE: https://www.evanstonartcenter.org/fair Trunk Show 4/19 at Exhibit Wilmette Join us on the evening of Thurs­day, April 19th, 5–8 pm at our newest stock­ist, Exhibit Wilmette. I love Exhibit’s mix of struc­tural inde­pen­dent fash­ion. Owner Mari-Rose McManus takes the time to research each brand and designer, and makes sure to source from design­ers who produce in their coun­try of origin. I will be bring­ing the entire Produc­tion Mode line, please join us for an evening of slow fash­ion. Save the Date: May 17–20 Jump­suit by Meg, who will be popping up in our studio May 17–20 Save the date for May 17–20, when we host New York-based designer Meg at our store­front studio, Depart­ment of Curiosi­ties. Meg will be bring­ing their Spring/Summer 2018 collec­tion of dreamy over­sized jump­suits, custom prints, sepa­rates and swimwear to Chicago for an exclu­sive sale in our shop. Stay tuned for more details … I am excited to announce that I have been awarded a grant from the Chicago Depart­ment of Cultural Affairs & Special Events to produce a NEW Produc­tion Mode collec­tion. The collec­tion is called “REPEAT/EVOLUTION”, and will build on the work we created with The Weav­ing Mill for our recent MOVE/REPEAT collec­tion. We are thrilled to be able to revisit and evolve the concepts we created with our vari­ous collab­o­ra­tors. There are always ideas, silhou­ettes, presen­ta­tions, colors, and textures that we dream of creat­ing, and now we can. More to come soon …

Thanks to Chicago Woman Maga­zine for includ­ing me in their list of 20 women in Chicago on the top of their game. It’s an honor and it’s moti­vat­ing to receive this recog­ni­tion! The truth is, for many of us to be on our A game as we start busi­nesses and work multi­ple jobs to make ends meet, other areas of our lives some­times go to B game. Thanks to my friends, family, clients, and collab­o­ra­tors who have been patient with me and supported me through this period of sleep depri­va­tion and intense focus on work. It’s a true priv­i­lege to love one’s work—I am grate­ful! 📷 by Art & Science Salon. Hair by the amaz­ing Tara Hulka at Art & Science. I am wear­ing Produc­tion Mode:)

Production Mode Press: Chicago Reader Cover + Interview

In the Decem­ber 6 issue of the Chicago Reader, Produc­tion Mode designer Jamie Hayes was inter­viewed as part of a story on fash­ion, gender, iden­tity, and poli­tics and the PM collec­tion is featured on the cover and through­out. View the full story here!

Photog­ra­phy, illus­tra­tions and collages by Petya Shala­manova. HMU by Andrea Samuels, Styling by Matthew Ancer, Models are Caitlin, Mana, and Cam from Ford.

Production Mode Press: Paper Magazine

Produc­tion Mode felt skirt featured on Papermagazine.com.

Photo by Diego Campos

Styling by Kit This with assis­tance from Tanner C. Bran­son.

Hair by Randy Wilder at 10 Mgmt

Makeup by Andrea Samuels at Factor

Mani­cure by Ashley Crowe

Prop Styling by Kelly McKaig

Cloth­ing Cred­its:

Left to Right: Cortazia, Grace, Erica

Art Institute: PM Designer Jamie Hayes Leads Roundtable Discussion

This fall the Art Insti­tute invited me to acti­vate the exhibit Revoli­ut­siia! Demon­strat­siia! Soviet Art Put to the Test. As part of the exhibit, cura­tors asked differ­ent artists to host an event within the Work­ers Club, a recon­struc­tion of Alek­sandr Rodchenko’s 1925 design, Work­ers Clubs were spaces for leisure and educa­tion for work­ers and their fami­lies located within Soviet facto­ries.

I gath­ered ten activist/artists to discuss the ques­tion: What is the role of the artist/activist in dark polit­i­cal times?” Our group spent the morn­ing discussing our own expe­ri­ences with art and social justice, and the inter­sec­tion of the two.

We talked about the fallacy of think­ing of time and evolu­tion as linear, and also the hubris that artists alone can rein­vent soci­ety. We also talked about the impor­tance of contin­u­ing to make art, polit­i­cal or other­wise, as the act of creat­ing keeps us vibrant and helps us to dream of a better, more just and loving future.

The exhibit explores the role of artists in build­ing soci­ety during the time period imme­di­ately follow­ing the Soviet Revo­lu­tion, and incred­i­bly rich period of art history. This period of Russ­ian Construc­tivism is espe­cially influ­en­tial to my work, not only aesthet­i­cally, but also in terms of the way that Construc­tivist artists consid­ered the whole cycle of produc­tion.

Graphic designs in the exhi­bi­tion

Artists like Stepanova and Popova under­stood the impor­tance of cloth­ing design, and consid­ered the design of the 2-D print in rela­tion to the cut of the cloth­ing to produce 3-dimen­sional shapes on the body. They designed so as to waste as little cloth as possi­ble, work­ing directly with textile mills to inte­grate the surface pattern design with the patterns used to cut the cloth.

Textile by Popova

Textile by Stepanova

They also under­stood fashion’s role in creat­ing iden­tity within soci­ety. In fact, already in the early 1920s, they were using design to ques­tion and subvert gender and class roles.

Designs by Varvara Stepanova

It was a time when the “lesser arts” like cloth­ing and textile design were consid­ered to be of the utmost impor­tance because of their preva­lence through­out soci­ety and due to the intense amount of human and natural resources required to produce cloth­ing. In addi­tion, gender equity was a pillar of the revo­lu­tion, so  tradi­tion­ally “femi­nine” arts like cloth­ing design, as well as female artists like Stepanova and Popova,  were well respected at the time. 

The exhibit runs through Janu­ary 15, 2018.

Thank you to Annemarie Strassel, Abigail Glaum-Lath­bury, Ayesha Jaco, Damon Locks, Hoda Katebi, Char­lie Vinz, Eve Fine­man, Megha Rala­p­ati, & Terri Kapsalis for join­ing me in the discus­sion.

MOVE/REPEAT Collection Launch & Studio Open House

Production Mode MOVE/REPEAT Collection Debut on 7/7!