Beyond Chicago: Midwest Fashion Connections and Chicago Designers Abroad
Chicago Fashion Week returns October 8–18, 2026, bringing together runway shows, exhibitions, educational programs, markets and other events across the city. [Chicago Fashion Week] As Chicago celebrates its fashion community, it is also worth looking at the connections that extend beyond the city.
Image from the 2025 Chicago Fashion Week exclusive opening celebration.
Chicago fashion has never stopped at the Illinois state line.
Designers based here participate in fashion events throughout the Midwest, while others have studied, produced, worked or presented their collections nationally and internationally. At the same time, Chicago brings people and ideas from other cities into its own fashion community.
Those relationships are part of the larger story surrounding Chicago Fashion Week today.
That can be seen across the Midwest. Milwaukee Fashion Week featured Chicago-connected designers Mark Roscoe, Nadia Ivanova and Taneasha Prunty. [Milwaukee Magazine]
Kansas City Fashion Week included Chicago designer Peach Carr in its 2025 designer lineup. [Kansas City Fashion Week]
Kansas City Fashion Week has also drawn designers from around the country. [Axios]
Image from Chicago Fashion Summit 2026 Instagram
These events may take place in different cities, but their fashion communities are not isolated from one another. Designers travel between markets, introduce their work to new audiences and develop relationships outside their home cities.
That regional perspective can also be found within Chicago Fashion Week itself. The 2026 Chicago Fashion Summit describes its purpose as elevating the fashion ecosystem in the Midwest, bringing together designers, creatives, retailers and innovators to exchange ideas and build networks. [Chicago Fashion Week – Chicago Fashion Summit]
Featured summit speaker, C.D. Greene grew up in Chicago’s West Chesterfield neighborhood, studied fashion in Chicago and worked for Chicago retailers before moving to New York and building a couture career. [LinkedIn] [Rocky Mountain PBS]
The Chicago Streetwear Expo, also part of the 2026 Chicago Fashion Week schedule, will feature more than 25 Chicago brands alongside brands from Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Indiana and other markets. [Chicago Fashion Week – Chicago Streetwear Expo]
Chicago designers are also working far beyond the Midwest.
FGI Chicago’s 2026 Rising Star Award finalists offer several examples of Chicago fashion careers extending nationally and internationally.
Raj Patel is based in Chicago and serves as Creative Director of Karmic Couture, but his designs have been presented in Chicago, New York, Mumbai and at Lakmé Fashion Week.
Holly Garrard’s Fundae showed at Paris Fashion Week in 2025, and the brand’s press materials also list appearances at Milan Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. [Fundae] [LinkedIn]
Vanessa Arroyo was born in Chicago and began her fashion career here before later working in New York and traveling to León, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she learned from footwear artisans.
Yohance Lacour produces YJL sneakers in Portugal, while Brian S. Leon established KOUSH in Uruguay before the brand began operating and presenting in Chicago.
These designers are working in Chicago today, but their careers connect the city to fashion communities and industries well beyond Illinois.
FGI provides another example of connections. FGI Chicago has been part of Chicago’s fashion community since 1934 while also belonging to the international Fashion Group International organization. [FGI Chicago]
The 11th FGI Chicago Rising Star Awards will take place October 10 during the 2026 Chicago Fashion Week period.
FGI Chicago Recognition in New York
Dana Asady receiving the 2024 FGI Chicago Rising Star Award. Photo by Sasha
Some FGI Chicago Rising Star recipients and finalists have also received recognition through FGI in New York. Holly Garrard’s Chicago-based Fundae was a finalist for an FGI New York Rising Star Award in Sustainability. [LinkedIn]
Dana Asady, who won the FGI Chicago Apparel Rising Star Award in 2024, later became a finalist for the FGI New York Rising Star Awards. [FGI Chicago LinkedIn]
Chicago-based NICZKA was also a finalist for the New York Rising Star Awards in 2024. [NICZKA]
Chicago Fashion Week describes itself as a celebration of Chicago’s fashion ecosystem, but that ecosystem does not end at the city or state border. [Chicago Fashion Week] It includes designers moving between Midwest cities, Chicago professionals showing internationally, people bringing experience from other markets into Chicago and organizations creating connections between local and larger fashion communities.
For Illinois Fashion History, those relationships are part of the history too. Documenting fashion in Illinois means documenting what happens here, but it also means following the people, places and networks that connect Illinois fashion to the Midwest and to the wider fashion industry.
Chicago Fashion Week gives us a chance to celebrate what is happening here now. Understanding those wider connections helps tell the fuller story of how Chicago fashion got here — and where it continues to go.