Yellow police tape crisscrossed the walls and chalk outlines of bodies dotted the floor at a loft space near North and Milwaukee. At the back of a small stage was the backdrop for a police lineup; standing in front of it was a guy with a tin sheriff’s badge on his shirt and handcuffs dangling from his belt. In the corner DJ Mary Nisi was playing the Fall’s “Cruisers Creek.” It was midnight, and the place was packed.
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The event was the brainchild of Erin Dance and Stephany Colunga, a pair of International Academy of Design and Technology students. “We’ve participated in fashion shows for some other people, and decided we should just do our own kind of thing,” explained Dance, who’s 25. “I like crime books and movies and that kind of stuff, and it’s a theme we thought we could work around. Having a theme makes you think about your work from a different perspective, and you end up doing some things you didn’t expect.”
Colunga and Dance kept things low-budget out of necessity: the pair’s major expenses were buying the beer and printing postcards (designed by a friend). The platforms forming the runway and stage were borrowed, and a photographer friend, Chris Nightengale, took the designers’ pictures (a friend who works at a copy shop provided the enlargements).
The show finished with Dance’s burlesque-inspired hoop skirts, yellow-and-black-striped tops and bottoms, and military-style jackets with bullet-shaped buttons. Her models all carried toy guns and got tons of applause. Afterward the designers came out, took bows, and started dancing to Missy Elliott.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Chris Nightengale, Mike Digioia.
