Tribune Talks to South Loop Fashion Artist, Nick Cave About Being Bold (or Maybe Fearlessness)

We don't know a ton about high fashion (let alone fashion in general), but it's always nice to hear about well regarded, interesting people in the neighborhood.

With that said, artist/fashion guru and South Loop resident Nick Cave was recently profiled in a fun read in the Tribune:

The day outside of Nick Cave's home in the South Loop was so forlorn you felt sorry for it. The sky was the color of mop water; the parking lot across the street — large, empty and evocative of nothing so much as nowhere — was especially drab. Cave did not stand out, either: He wore brown high-tops, a black sweatshirt and, above his sea-captain beard, a dark winter cap. He took a seat at his dining room table and gestured for me to sit. Music from the nail salon on the ground floor of his building wafted faintly into the room. He waited me for to say something and so I said: 

"You're a bold guy." 

"Boldness?" he asked. "I have?" 

"Yeah," I said. "They said you were thinking about it..." 

"Oh," he said, trying to remember. 

"How to be bold," I said, offering help, "how to act boldly, how to dress boldly, how to seize boldly on a good idea. I'm not quite sure why 'boldness.' Perhaps because your work is bold — do you see yourself as bold?" 

"No," he said, thinking. 

"I prefer fearlessness to boldness," he said at last.

If you recall, we've posted about Cave before as he had a pop-up store in Motor Row (23rd and Michigan) back in 2010.  If you're curious here is a mesmerizing youtube video from Cave's Soundsuits at the Denver Art Museum:

More on Nick Cave Pop-Up Store at Mich & 23rd

We were captivated by some interesting videos we found about Nick Cave's Sound Suits. According to the blog Racked Chicago, his pop-up store is open for business at 23rd and Michigan:

Cave teamed up with multimedia designer Bob Faust to open this pop-up designer showcase of avant garde accessories and gifts on East 23rd st at Michigan Ave. The lonely stretch of old Chicago loft buildings, between the south end of McCormick Place and Chinatown, feels just derelict enough to inspire the feeling that something special is about to happen to the neighborhood. SoundSuitShop may just be the kickstart that this neighborhood needs.

(Image from Racked Chicago)

High Fashion Comes to the Sloop

No we're not talking about the amazingly chic Sloopin t-shirts (although you can still buy them if you follow this link), we're talking about a new exhibit going in at the corner of Michigan and 23rd by the chair of the School of the Art Institute's fashion department, Nick Cave:

From September 10 to 17 there'll be a video installation of the Soundsuits on the corner of South Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street every evening starting at 8 PM. A pop-up shop featuring items like prints and T-shirts inspired by the suits (but not the suits themselves, which can cost several thousand dollars) opens from 8 to 10 PM on September 10, with a Vogue-signing by Cave from 9:30 to 10, and continues nightly from 6 to 9 PM.

Nick Cave's work is being featured in the September issue of Vogue magazine via an 8 page spread and it's interesting to say the least. To get some background on his work it's important to watch some of these videos:

(hat tip: SoloMotorRow)