3 Fashionables

Three of Chicago's fashion mavens share the secrets to personal style and business success.

YVETTE Mira Couture

The lovely, bubbly Yvette, designer at Mira Couture, is transforming the way women feel about themselves by putting them in designs made just for them. Long before Yvette made a name for herself in the industry, she got her start in fashion practically when she was born. Her mother, Mira Horoszowski, founder of Mira Couture, exposed her daughter to the industry from day one while she was starting up her own design business almost 40 years ago. “She’d bring me to work all the time, since I was in a carriage. I grew up there,” she says. “I’d fill out invoices and pretend to be a designer. It was such a great place to be creative because I would make things, not really knowing what is was all about.”
 

From designing dresses for her dolls, then her friends, then pieces for fashion shows and later modeling, Yvette was on the path to her dream. “My mom had a lot of confidence in me at an early age,” she says. “It made me feel like I could do it. I didn’t want to second guess myself, because she didn’t.” Now Yvette works with her mother full-time at Mira Couture, designing one-of-kind apparel for her customers.And when she’s not working, she’s spending time with her 14-year-old son, Alec.
 

“When I see a dress evolve, I think it’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever designed. I see it on a person and I see them glowing,” she says. “It’s beyond just the dress on the hanger because once you put it on the person, it becomes a part of them and has a personality.” Along with personality and individuality, fashion allows us to express ourselves, she notes.

“Every day you can show what mood you feel. You can tell a lot about people by what they’re wearing,” Yvette says. “And it’s never boring to me – this whole entire time. I just live to see what’s next.”
 

BARBARA BATES Bates Design

For Barbara Bates, designing came naturally. Obsessed with Barbie clothes more than actual Barbie herself, Barbara had an eye for fashion at a young age. It seems to be that owning her own company, Bates Design, was inevitable.

Although Barbara worked in corporate America for the beginning of her professional life, you wouldn’t catch her in a boring navy skirt suit. Instead, she wore interesting pieces she designed herself. “People would ask me, ‘Where’d you get that from?’ And I’d say, ‘I designed it.’’’ About 23 years ago, Barbara quit her 9-to-5- job and started designing clothes full-time.

“When I first started, all I wanted to do was just design clothes women would wear,” she says. “As long as it’s the right thing for the right reason, I’ll move ahead.” And move ahead she did. Barbara found great success in the 1990s, when her client list included Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan. Oprah bought numerous pieces and Michael even brought his friends to be fitted by Barbara.

Now, most of Barbara’s clients are, as she describes, successful businesswomen who want to be noticed. “They like to have their own identity. They like somebody to say, ‘I love what you’re wearing.’’’ But no matter how unusual or unique a design she creates, Barbara always makes sure her garments fit her clients. “They want something they saw somebody else in that doesn’t work for them,”she says. “And we don’t care what size you are – as long as the garment fits you right.” In the next 10 years, Barbara, also a mother of two sons, Kristopher, 26, and Eugene, 38, hopes to be right where she’s at today, with her shop in the South Loop. But right now she’s battling one her biggest fights yet – breast cancer. She was diagnosed in June and is currently going through chemotherapy. “I’m going to win the fight for sure. It’s another movement I want to take on,” she says. It’s also important to her to share her knowledge. Although Barbara has enjoyed working solo all these years, she emjoys mentoring enthusiastic young designers. “Somebody’s got to give them a chance,” she says. “I want to be that person who could open up my doors to them if I can.”
 

LAUREN CAVALLO-RUNZEL Gavin

Take some advice from the French – “Cassez le ‘look.’” “Break the look” is a style code by which boutique owner Lauren Cavallo-Runzel has been living since she picked up the tip while modeling in Paris 20 years ago. She’s introduced the term to Chicago via her Evanston boutique, Gavin, which she opened in February 2009. “For the last 10 years I’ve been pretty much raising my kids and playing tennis, exercising,” Lauren says. “So I thought, this is crazy. I have a good mind, I speak three languages, I have a B.A. in History. I decided to do what I know,” she says. “I just took the plunge and jumped right in.” After all, Lauren knows a thing or two about personal style – fashion is in her family (her parents owned the boutique Couture Ltd.), she’s worked with the best stylists and designers in the world, modeled for two decades and lived in Europe for a few years. “Personal style means trying something different, definitely not following the trends,” Lauren says. “I don’t think there are any rules, either.”

And she says it’s only fashionable and chic if you’re comfortable inwhat you’re wearing. “Whatever makes you feel good in your own skin is howyou should dress,” she says. While many women run to the racks to find the trendiest pieces of the season, Lauren tends to shy away from them, knowing they change often and don’t show off individuality. Instead, she suggests having a few staples in your wardrobe, including a navy blazer, trench coat, black trousers, great blue jeans, cashmere turtleneck and beautiful ballet flats. “Those basics are what you throw with on all the trendy things. It pulls it all together,” she says. Affordable style is something Lauren has brought to Gavin, which she named after her daughter (she has six children, ranging from ages 13 to 22). Lauren wants her customers to shop smart, making sure they aren’t spending $200 on something already in their closet. “Every person who comes in my shop, I have a responsibility to try and find out their needs and make them feel comfortable and beautiful,” she concludes. “If I can’t make people feel beautiful and comfortable in their skin, then I don’t have any business having a store.”