Vendor Spotlight – Caroline DeVillo Couture

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If you’re looking for a stunning, timeless, and breathtaking wedding gown, look no further than Chicago-based designer, Caroline DeVillo. Her Hollywood-inspired couture gowns are elegant, classic, and sure to make an impression.

Caroline DeVillo always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, but when it came time for college, she studied Marketing of Textiles and Apparel at the University of Illinois to become a buyer instead. Plans change and along the way, she found herself attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise (FIDM) in Los Angeles. During her time in California, she began to work as a stylist and costume designer for TV, film, and print. After growing homesick, she decided to return to Chicago and take the plunge into design. Drawing on inspiration from Old Hollywood and her costuming experience, she designed her first line of couture bridal gowns in 2003. In 2006, her burgeoning bridal fashion career led her to open her own store in Bucktown.

Brides can choose from three couture collections to find their perfect wedding dress. Caroline DeVillo offers gowns that range from simple and understated to fun and flirty to sexy and glamorous. Whatever your personal style, Caroline DeVillo’s stunning masterpieces are certainly worth a glance.

Brides can also participate in the design process with Caroline DeVillo’s I.D. Collection. The I.D. (Individual Design) collection allows brides the opportunity to mix and match their favorite looks to create a dress that represents their unique personality and individual style.

Caroline DeVillo can also help dress the rest of your bridal party in style. She offers a beautiful collection of cocktail gowns that are perfect for bridesmaids and her customizable Kiddy Cocktail Collection provides great options for flower girls and children ages two and up.

Caroline Devillo Couture
http://carolinedevillo.com/
1616 North Damen Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647-5536
(773) 342-0096

Vendor Spotlight – Jenny Yoo

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Designer Jenny Yoo Defies Wedding Dress Convention

Although choosing to wear your mother’s old wedding dress on your big day, might be a sentimental gesture, chances are, you probably want to wear a dress that is as contemporary and hip as you are – a unique dress that is indicative of present-day fashion (no offense to Mom, of course). Chicago area dress designer, Jenny Yoo, has a progressive, yet simple approach to wedding dress design that portrays this aesthetic ideal quite beautifully.

Yoo grew up outside of Philadelphia, and later attended New York’s Parsons School of Design. Subsequently, she started her own company, under the philosophy of creating understated and stylish dresses for bridesmaids – as to alter the preconceived notion that bridesmaid dresses must be ornate and overdone. Today, the Jenny Yoo Collection offers dresses for all wedding roles: bridesmaids, flowergirls, and of course, brides.

Yoo’s dresses all have many common stylistic themes. The bride dresses show a simplistic elegance, presenting themselves as light and airy, while emphasizing that the all-white color scheme is one tradition worth keeping. Yoo’s opposition to convention is clear in her bridesmaid designs. Keeping consistent with modern fashion, they have little to no ornamentation, but all the while, appear extremely refined and feminine. Even the flowergirl dresses maintain a certain sense of sophistication, but are still age appropriate.

For more information on Yoo’s dresses, visit www.jennyyoo.com.

Jenny Yoo – Chicago
730 north franklin street, suite 602 / chicago, il 60654
312.642.2327 / chicago@jennyyoo.com

Indie Rock

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Indie RockMany customers mention the genre “Indie Rock” in several different contexts. This article will help you define the undefinable – Indie Rock.

Indie stems from the word independent. The music isn’t attached to a major record label so there is some purity. It’s not about selling a product; it’s about producing good songs. Labels like Matador, Subpop, Saddlecreek Records, and Dfarecords are just a few choice examples of independent music producers. Notable bands include: Interpol, Belle & Sebastian, Bright Eyes, The Rapture, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, The Shins, Rilo Kiley, PJ Harvey, and Elliot Smith. In general, Indie followers love obscurity. Indie music has also evolved into an entire subculture of “hipsters,” a group of people who listen to Indie music, and have no tolerance for poseurs and the main stream. The lines between indie and mainstream music is really not clear and often a subject of debate.

Please keep in mind, some bands that have spent most of their careers on major labels are still occasionally referred to by the press as indie rock because of their sound or aesthetic, such as Radiohead.

A variety of musical genres and subgenres with varying degrees of overlap are associated with indie rock. Some of these include lo-fi, post-rock, sadcore, C86, math rock, shoegaze/dream pop, indie pop, noise rock, noise pop, riot grrrl, post-hardcore, twee pop, alt-country, post-punk revival, garage rock revival, dance-punk, indie folk, baroque pop, new prog, and indietronica.

The roots of modern indie rock are often traced back to The Velvet Underground‘s self-titled debut album, released in 1967, which was ranked #7 on Blender’s list of the 100 greatest indie rock albums.[2] Allmusic notes that every “left-of-center rock movement owes an audible debt” to this album.[3] The Beach Boys‘ 1966 album Pet Sounds is also commonly listed as a highly influential starting point.[4] Later, the punk movement of the 1970s had a direct impact on the DIY aesthetic that later became a cornerstone of indie rock.

For a comprehensive guide on how to play indie rock guitar, check out Beginner Guitar HQ