Columbia associate professor showcases collection on opening night of Chicago Fashion Week event

The Curio opened the first official event for Chicago Fashion Week on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at the Chicago Cultural Center, with eight different designers featured including Justin Dougan- LeBlanc, a Columbia College associate professor in the School of Fashion.

“This is my first fashion show in Chicago, and it’s surprising because I’ve been teaching here for six years now and not done a fashion show,” Dougan-LeBlanc said. “This collection that I’m currently designing for Chicago Fashion Week will be a time lock collection, and it’s an inclusive collection so any gender or size or so forth can wear these garments. That’s my goal, to make it as accessible, inclusive as possible.” 

But the theme of his collection is his experience growing up deaf and being a father as he navigates parenthood.

“I have 16-month-old twins now, and this is pretty much showcasing what we wear at home, which is pajamas and robes, so everything is oversized and just kind of casual. So that’s the inspiration behind this collection, just how it’s been being a papa, and just working through this with my husband, who’s also a dada,” Dougan-LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc’s husband, Kyle Dougan, is a theatrical artistic director.

“As a husband, he always bounces ideas off of me, which I  love, because I’m also a collaborative artist. So that’s the fun part about being married to someone that’s so inspired in the fashion world. I work in the theater world, so we’re totally separate, but the idea behind creating something is the same. So it’s great to hear him think about moments that are happening in his life and then expand on those through each moment in the collection,” Dougan said.

Dougan-LeBlanc’s collection, while exploring fatherhood, hones in on specific moments through each look. 

“I think one of the biggest things that is maybe not as obvious from watching on the runway, but there is a piece that is covered in our kid’s first words. You won’t necessarily see it, but I think the way it’s designed, once you get up close, you realize what it is. That piece in particular, and then when you see the piece as a whole, it really, for me, ties it into early parenthood.” Dugan says that life has been crazy with kids, and even crazier with the both of them working on projects simultaneously, “which we will never do again,” Dougan said.

Dougan-LeBlanc is known for his textile manipulation, and he finds inspiration in the unexpected. Some of these inspirations include clothing tags, stuffed animals and “a gold lamé duck in an acrylic purse, and that is because the kids are going through a duck face,” said Jenny Du Puis, an assistant professor in the School of Fashion who has been assisting Dougan-LeBlanc in his “eleventh hour.” 

At the Cultural Center on Wednesday night, she bent over in a corner finishing touches on what was dubbed, the “teddy-bear backpack,” a giant collection of golden plush bears and crescent moons. 

“I didn’t know that there was a gold lamé duck going into an acrylic purse. So he showed me the duck, and then he stuffed it in a  purse, and he shut it, and part of it got squished, and it kind of looked like a wing, and it was just a little absurdist, and it was such a delight to see. So it’s been fun for me as his colleague, to see him in action,” Du Puis said. 

After the Ceta Walters Rising Fashion Content Creator Award was presented by Maggie Gillette, principal of The Curio, the show began. Dougan-LeBlanc was the second designer to be shown. His models took the stage to an electric remix of a nursery rhyme, which highlighted the themes of parenthood the collection explored.

Each look came down the runway elegantly, spot lights reflecting off the bespoke golden details. The track suddenly switched to a triumphant remix of Dance Monkey by the Tones and I and Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve as the “teddy bear backpack” made its way down the runway to the audience’s delight. 

The theme of the night is  “A Celebration of Chicago Style,” and a range was on display. 

“We wanted people to represent different genres all the way from evening wear to street style, ready to wear, avant garde, everything in between. So to have that nice diversity was part of the selection process. And then designers who have been working in the industry who show a quality product,” Gilette said. “Chicago style is more than one thing. It’s not just street style, or just, a Gold Coast high-end event, it’s everything. We wanted that diversity to really be what Chicago style is.” 

Copy edited by Doreen Abril Albuerne-Rodriguez

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