Jessica Herman

Chicago fashionistas, roll out the red carpet. Forget the days of tearing through Vogue, W and The New York Times Sunday Styles, running your fingers down the page, with nary a hope of touching your fashion dreams (lest you give in to a New York rendezvous or wallet-sucking walk down Michigan Avenue). All hail Barneys New York Co-Op (2209-11 North Halsted), the crème de la boutique's "affordable" sister.

Close your eyes, open your purses, and step across Lincoln Park's cushy soil to a stretch of mouth-watering window displays: a boulder of jeans piled and pinned together beside a leaping, gold-eyed puma and a Diane von Furstenberg-clad mannequin, with a string of leather purses tumbling onto her head like a Chiquita Banana headdress. While the prices fall a few zeros shy of those in its haute couture headquarters, bargain in Co-Op language means $150 shirts and $350 skirts.

Outfitted in a stark white loft, the store is full of mini shrines to your favorite designers: Laura Moffat, Rebecca Taylor, Kristina Ti, Rozae Nichols and Marc Jacobs, to name a few. Beyond the stock of spring garments-sequin boleros, metallic crocheted sweaters and linen peasant tops, the collection of bold jewelry includes everything from safari-style pendants to African-inspired strands of monochromatic beads.

A mirrored-surface model of the Sears Tower draws visitors to the center of the room and up the stairs to the second floor men's collection. About equal in size to the selection of women's clothing, the men's clothing includes a few lines carried in Chicago's high-end boutiques--Earnest Sewn, Juicy Couture, and Rogan--as well as designs by Paul Smith and Helmut Lang. In appropriate New York style, ice-blue mannequins rock the collection by sporting edgy get-ups like graffiti-splattered high tops with rolled-up jeans and Valentine's socks. Rainbow-striped sweaters, cropped pants and splashy pinstriped dress shirts the color of Cosmopolitans hang alongside simple tees. An understated version of the wall o' women's jeans downstairs, shelves hold stacks upon stacks of denim by James, Salt, Chip and Pepper and Paper Denim. There's also plenty of Kiehl's and Sharps shaving products to smooth your winter-worn skin for the summer.

Good luck, you gluttons for fashion. This place makes it all too easy to kill your next paycheck.

(2005-03-29)

Also by Jessica Herman

Sexy Appeal
Fashion designer Orlando Espinoza continuously returns to the word "sexy" when he describes the look of his designs
(2005-03-22)

Fashion Salvation
Decked out in an ensemble of red and blue tights peeking out from a pair of holey jeans and a sequined Western shirt, Dolan Geiman reminisces about his childhood, growing up in rural Virginia, working on the farm and taking girls out fishin'
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Open for business
Banking on the market's obsession with brand names and logos, sportswear lines PUMA (1051 North Rush) and Adidas (923 North Rush) have up and changed their image right on Rush Street
(2005-03-01)

Open for business
Barely a week old, Jade (1557 North Milwaukee) exudes that minty-fresh aroma, with the scent of lilies wafting across the shiny wood floors, between the walls of jade green paint
(2005-02-22)

Tightly Knit
(2005-02-15)

One stop
(2005-02-15)

The Sensuous Woman
(2005-02-01)

Fit to Print
(2005-01-18)

Stone roses
(2005-01-11)

Dancing with myself
(2005-01-04)

Flower power
(2005-01-04)

Skin spun
(2005-01-03)

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