Design Hunter's Journal

The One of a Kind Spring Show is this weekend at the The Mart in Chicago. I always look forward to attending this show, one of the premier artisan events in the city. From out of the hubbub surrounding the well-attended booths on the 7th floor, the following artisans stood out to me:

Selma Karaca Atelier

I previewed the intriguing sewed-panel dresses of Selma Karaca online before coming to the show, but I was unprepared for the garlands of hand-crocheted floral necklaces and lariats that greeted me at her booth:

“These were my Covid meditation,” Selma told me. She took up crochet during the pandemic, producing garlands of flowers not according to any pre-determined design, but creating whatever flower or berry struck her fancy as she went along.

 “My hands always have to be doing something,” she explained, gesturing at needlepoint flower necklaces hanging on a screen and blouses sewn with artfully placed strips of fabric.

We are the lucky recipients of her need to create: unique paneled dresses, needlepoint, crochet. Selma is a sculptor and painter from Turkey who moved to New York in 1999 to start her own clothing line. 

Selma recognizes that her needlepoint necklaces are a rarity. “No one does this work anymore,” she says, fingering a needlepointed lily hanging from a garland.

Yet another reason to visit a show like this, to see fabulous needlework that is on the verge of disappearing.

Jewelry by Aris

The golden glow of the jewelry in this booth drew me in. Is it gold vermeil, I wondered (gold layered on top of sterling silver)? The bold, geomeric necklaces and cuffs created By Aris have that type of frosted, slightly matte appearance, that unmistakable glow:

“No, it is heavy gold plate, using 18k gold,” Elena, the sales director, said when I asked. To me, the surfaces looked like they had been hammered with the world’s tiniest hammer, producing a uniformly pebbled finish.

Aris, the jewelry designer, explained, “The base metal is bronze. It is then sand-blasted to get the matte finish.” After the pieces are gold-plated, they resemble ancient artifacts, but the designs themselves are contemporary. Aris is a jewelry designer from Athens, Greece. His work is inspired by Greek culture and the female form, combining structural and cultural elements of antiquity with the elegance and modernism of the present. 

Name the Aris Necklace

“We are trying to name this necklace. Do you have any ideas?” Elena asked me. She was wearing the necklace in question, which looked to me like golden logs scattered in a fireplace.

“Golden Ember Necklace”? That would be my vote.

Lilian Asterfield Wearable Art

Nicole Deponte transforms men’s neckties into intricately folded ascots and brooches that command your attention. She takes an item of traditional menswear that we are accustomed to seeing worn one way, and makes it into unique sculptural apparel, something that people of any gender can wear. 

Nicole is a sculptor and collage artist based in Providence, R.I. “I found myself drawn to dapper suiting material and tweed, that dapper look associated with Gentleman Jack in the [HBO] drama series,” Nicole said when I asked her why she chose neckties as her medium. She was inspired by two bags full of vintage neckties in her studio to begin experimenting. “I enjoy mixing different prints and playing with people’s perceptions of what colors go together,” she says.

M.C. Escher Ascot

I noticed an ascot with an M.C. Escher print and pulled it out; what an attention-grabbing piece!

Imagine this ascot worn with a tuxedo as formal wear, or even with a simple black dress. Lilian Asterfield also makes belts, reminiscent of Japanese obis or formal cummerbunds:

Now this I would also like to see worn with a tuxedo or little black dress.

Nicole chose the name “Lilian Asterfield” for her shop because it was her grandfather’s nickname for her mother as a little girl. Nicole describes Lilian Asterfield as a “feisty, free spirited Modern Victorian specializing in the dramatic and avoiding the ordinary.”

My selections represent just a small fraction of the more than 300 artisans exhibiting at the One of a Kind Spring Show, which runs through Sunday, May 1 at The Mart in Chicago.