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Raw elegance

Fashion educator and artist Gillion Carrara’s legacy of style

by Isa Giallorenzo

Artist, professor, and metalsmith Gillion Carrara’s Lakeview apartment/atelier feels like crossing the threshold into a temple devoted to beauty and contemplation. Her walls and tables hold a curated array of art, artifacts, and interesting materials gathered over the years. It's a cohesive selection of almost exclusively black-and-white objects that exude a quiet yet potent presence.

Carrara's space is permeated with the memory of her late husband, Alfonso Carrara, an Italian American architect, artist, poet, and photographer who passed away over 20 years ago at the age of 90. Alfonso greatly influenced Carrara's aesthetic; he designed many of the pieces on display in her home as well as multiple architectural features present throughout the interior.

"He was a beautiful husband," Carrara said. "We went to Italy a lot, to Milan, Venice, Siena, Florence ... because that's where our interests were, in art and friends. Al loved to go places and draw and write poetry, in Italian or English. The whole closet there is full of his sketchbooks and his drawings."

As an homage to Alfonso, Carrara posthumously published Happenchance, his poignant account of World War Il interwoven with his striking photographs and poetry. "He never picked up a rifle. I put that book in every library I could all over the world," she said.

Carrara has also published the book Fashion Icons, a must-have for fashion enthusiasts, created in collaboration with illustrator (and past Reader contributor) David Lee Csicsko. In Fashion Icons, Carrara draws on her deep expertise to share essential facts about 50 influential designers, including Elsa Schiapa-relli, Issey Miyake, and Halston.

Currently an adjunct professor in fashion, dress, and art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Carrara is also the founding director of SAIC's Fashion Resource Center, a comprehensive fashion library and garment archive hosted at the school since 1987.

Another way to tap into Carrara's fashion expertise is through Seamless: Fashion, Art, and Society, a six-part online lecture series she designed for remote learners. The upcoming June session will feature lectures titled "Man Ray: the Dadaists and Fashion Photography," "Madeleine Vionnet: Elegant Discourse," and "Dior: Volume Control."

"Then I give attendees a list of books related to those themes, along with access to that season's six lectures. If you pay a little more, you can get recordings from when I started last fall. I've changed the topics each time," Carrara explained, peppering the conversation with remarkable details about the design-ers-like Vionnet's notably humane treatment of her workers (in stark contrast to Chanel's difficult temperament).

Carrara's presence itself is a master class in personal style, marked by her signature thick-rimmed round black glasses, close-cropped haircut, and voluminous black garments. A devoted walker, she's something of a local fixture. "In fact, I'm known in this neighborhood; 'Oh, she's the one who always wears black, walks with purpose, stands tall, and is nice."

Carrara is also a regular at Chicago fashion events, consistently at the forefront of the local scene and beyond. "Once, at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition opening in Dundee, Scotland, I wore a Comme des Garçons tartan suit, and people came up to me to ask, 'Who are you?" she recalls.

In 2012, Carrara curated an exceptional exhibition of her own, "Material Translations: Japanese Fashion Design," presented in the Tadao Ando Gallery within the Asian Art wing of the Art Institute. The show featured a selection of Japanese garments from the Fashion Resource Center.

In addition to her work in education, Carrara is a skilled metalsmith and jewelry designer who incorporates organic elements gathered during her travels. She creates "art to wear" using silver, bone, brierroot, ebony, glass, and other raw, natural finds.

Her fascination with unexpected objects— like old, heavy rusted keys, animal hooves, coral, or the center of a whale's ear—is conta-gious. After spending time among her curated pieces, one begins to see the world differently; even the most ordinary materials, like bricks and cinder blocks, take on a new significance.

Carrara's designs, including housewares, are available through her website and at local shops such as Production Mode, iD, and James Ciccotti. She also participates in occasional trunk shows as part of the MATERIAL collective, alongside fashion designer Andrea Reynders. They frequently sell in private homes and venues like Alma Gallery, where they'll be showing in mid-June alongside a selection of local designers.

In the meantime, Carrara stays content in her studio, experimenting freely with materials. "But you know what? Not to please anyone but me. If I'm pleased with a bracelet, I'll show it. If I'm not pleased, I put it aside and I go on to something else," she says. Or, as her late husband once put it, "If you're going to do it, do it right, or don't do it at all."

Chicago Reader

City Life | Fashion and Style
May 15, 2025