On Friday, September 10th from 6 – 11 PM, SHE boutique in Highland Park will be partnering with Saks Fifth Avenue to bring Fashion’s Night Out to Chicago. black/francis clients TOKI and NPRPA will be hosting trunk shows at SHE while Highland Park’s Central Avenue will be hopping and dressed to kill, filled with great discounts, fashion-related activities and swag to take home.

Join us as we and many others take up Anna Wintour’s cause and make fashion the focal point of this special evening.

"Bridging the gap between Chicago shoppers and fashion designers of the world"

We were honored to have been the subject of a recent article in Time Out Chicago by Jessica Herman.

Read more about black/francis in the August 12th issue or click here.

Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros connects with his audience.

One half of black/francis covered Lollapalooza for refinery29. Get the full story on all the action, here.

Photograph: Phil Knott for the Guardian

Order this fun, feminine NPRPA Holiday 2010 dress from SHE Boutique and check out the full editorial and interview here.

Chaos and beauty reign simultaneously in our dear friend Laura Letinsky’s home in Hyde Park. It’s a magical and wonderful world she’s created with her husband, Tony Wight of Tony Wight Gallery, and her two sons. With their combined collection of art, artful treasures and furniture spanning decades and styles, their interior environment simply can’t be replicated; the high and low coexist here in every corner (with the exception of their  fine art collection), from fashion (Rick Owens to thrift ) to furniture (mid century originals to yard sale finds).

We’ve always been a fan of her beautiful artwork, photographic still lifes that in their beauty and melancholy can make you ache.  And we find here that she lives life and juggles her many roles at the highest level.  Her art is featured in some of the best collections and galleries in the world, her culinary and gardening skills are formidable, she is a fantastic mother, a good friend, and has a handsome husband all while co-chairing the Art Department at the University of Chicago.

We invite you to take a look at this lovely home, a place where adolescent mess and high art coexist happily, in a way that only Laura could make beautiful.

We elevate our intellect with Laura Letinsky:

How do you define beauty?
It’s a combination of aesthetic pleasure, sensorial pleasure that is abiding and makes you experience things with intensity and longevity.  There is an intellectual aspect to it – body and mind.

What attracts you?
Beauty is a kind of engagement that is complex and perplexing and sometimes confounding or provoking as opposed to something that is not sustaining, a fleeting thing like chocolate ice cream. It is something that is more engaging, makes me think about what I’m experiencing as opposed to just a reassuring or comforting experience. Yet high and low can both be attractive simultaneously. I try to consider ideas and experiences that are part of the everyday as opposed to always being elevated. I’m as attracted to a Givenchy bag as I am to the work of my garden and getting a tomato that I’ve planted. I like to wear and use objects, I can’t think of something as beautiful if they can’t be touched or used.

Is there a hierarchy to the senses?

You can’t separate one from another.  All the senses are so built in together.  I’m interested in the Western approach where things that are more bodily are debased. For instance, why are the eyes are elevated over the mouth or the nose.  I try to think about why that is so and try to push at that and problematize that. When I create work, it is very much about a sense of the palpable – I want my work to have a smell, almost. It’s a false dichotomy of elevating the mind over body, it’s a problematic dichotomy.  It leads to a host of other problematic associations and beliefs that we aren’t animals.  We are animals. The whole mind body split, the Descartes theory, has been so influential.  Now it’s changed quite a bit in the last 20 or 30 years, but when I was in art school there was still the Clement Greenberg split. The work that I’ve been interested in, be it Literature or visual, has tended towards work that tried to figure out the relationship and see the relationship between those categories.  I’m interested in why we tend to fall into categories so easily and why those are so difficult to tear down and why they’re so reassuring to have those categories in place.

The offices of Dirk Denison are not a place for mediocrity: outrageously beautiful art hangs on the walls (Wolfgang Tillmans, Jim Hodges, etc) and stunning architectural models created by Dirk and his talented architects are everywhere.  You’d think that, given Dirk’s success as an architect and as President of the Society for Contemporary Art – the Art Institute of Chicago’s contemporary art acquisition board – that the man would be a little out of reach. Rather, he is warm, charismatic and engaging and without a single hint of snobbishness, despite his impeccable pedigree and high brow taste. His upbringing in a tremendously creative, art-loving family gave him the freedom to realize his passion for architecture at an early age, giving him a fast track to success as an architect and an art collector. To summarize his flight plan from adolescence to his current practice, Dirk Denison Architects:

Cranbrook -> IIT (BA & MBA) -> SOM -> Harvard GSD -> IIT Professor  -> DDA

Among other notable buildings and serene private residences, DDA has designed the spaces for restaurants L2O and Terzo Piano in the Art Institute’s Modern Wing. DDA designs convey modernist, clean lines while incorporating a sense of complexity, achieving the ultimate goal of beauty inside and out. Step into the offices of Dirk Denison Architects.

Our off-the-cuff Q&A with Dirk Denison:

What are your favorite galleries in Chicago?

Rhona Hoffman:  I designed it!  Rhona is the cornerstone of scene.

Kavi Gupta:  Amazing energy, making exciting things happen.

Shane Campbell:  The guy has an amazing eye for talent.

Rowley Kennerk:  Really great program, work no one else is showing.

Monique Meloche:  Great Shows:  Karen Reimer, Justin Copper.

Tony Wight:  Great program coming up in their new space this fall.

What is an old haunt from your undergrad IIT days that you still go back to?

Healthy Food on South Halsted, a Lithuanian restaurant.

Legos or Lincoln Logs?

Both!

Merce Cunningham or Mikhail Baryshnikov?

Merce

What is your favorite pencil/pen?

Niji Stylist

It’s hard to choose which title one should start with when introducing Dan Devening. He is an accomplished artist, owner of a successful gallery, and a dedicated professor at the School of the Art Institute. We caught him in between one of his many trips to Europe and visited him at his beautiful Humboldt Park home. Through the years he has amassed quite a collection of art, antique mid-century furniture and thrift store gems. All the elements come together to make a colorful and warm home that conveys his unique eye and personality. Christopher Wool, Judy Ledgerwood and Sarah Morris are some of the bold faced art names among many many others.

Q&A with DD

Favorite restaurant in Chicago and Berlin or Cologne?

Favorite Chicago restaurants: Avec, Rootstock and Belly Shack. I like Monsieur Vong in Berlin and Galestro in Cologne for pasta.

What do you like to frame your pieces in?  How do you decide what to frames pieces in?

When I frame art work, especially works on paper, I like to use a very thin, white lacquered wood frame. I would rather that the frame not distract from the work, so for me, a white framed tends to disappear into the wall. If you don’t want to use white, a very light wood like maple or ash is also a good alternative. My guide has always been to look at how museums frame contemporary work. Usually those pieces are discreet, tasteful and draw attention to the art work rather than the frame.

What’s the most important tool in your life?

At the moment, my Apple Powerbook is probably my most important tool. After that, my sketchbook is a close second.

As a child did you prefer crayons or finger paints?

When I remember being actively involved in drawing, I mostly remember that I liked to use very sharp pencils.

What’s your favorite German food?

That’s a tough one but when I’m in Germany, it’s inevitable that the street vendors selling grilled bratwurst get a lot of my attention when I’m cruising around town.

Congrats to devening projects + editions!  It was just named the best gallery in Chicago in August 2010 Chicago Magazine!

An advocate of holistic health in Chicago, Eugénie Pabst entreated us to a quick visit inside her River North co-op. A Psy.D. biofeedback specialist with a private practice at Balance Health + Wellness, Eugénie is dedicated to wellness, health and beauty. Regularly seen in dresses pulled from the Pabst trove of precious designer vintage, she’s an avid yogi and supporter of the full range of Chicago cultural institutions along with the non-profit Global Colors, a group empowering grassroots organizations to accomplish specific goals by providing a kick-start of support for projects that are ultimately self-sustaining. It was great to see Eugénie in her home, an oasis of beauty and calm; here, we connect the dots between Eugénie and the Pabst women who came before her.

A few weeks ago I convinced my old friend Gillion Carrara to open up her studio and home to us so that we could share her magical world with you. She is a fashion historian, jewelry and object designer/creator, professor at the School of the Art Institute, head of the Fashion Resource Center at SAIC, fabulous pastry maker, eclectic eyeglass wearer and lover of poetry.  Given all of these talents, you can only imagine the many treasures in her possession. And what treasures!  She and her husband, Alfonso Carrara, architect, artist and protégé of Moholy-Nagy, have created an inspiring space filled with art, books, beautiful modernist furniture and love. There is so much history to take in at the Atelier.

Photos by Michael Litchfield. For more photos, please visit black/francis on Facebook.