Building Community and Uplifting Independent Designers with Jamie Hayes
Written By Gavin Lipinski
Compared to other fashion-forward cities, Chicago’s scene is small but growing. And despite the size of the city’s fashion circle, many folks in the industry are finding that this size difference has led to a stronger, tight knit community. One such leader in this field is Jamie Hayes, lead designer and owner of Production Mode. Hayes recognized the hunger for a fashion community and began to create just the place right at 3860 N Lincoln Avenue in the North Center neighborhood.
“I've been running Production Mode for almost 10 years now, and from the beginning it’s been about collaboration and working together,” Jamie Hayes explained. “Our philosophy has always been that it's more fun to do things together.” This ethos has manifested in numerous ways, including trunk shows, mending workshops and pop-up events regularly held at Production Mode.
Trunk shows are a wonderful way for customers to get to know new independent designers both locally and from around the nation, while getting to meet other like-minded shoppers. Often, the designer will travel with their goods to the trunk show, allowing any questions to be answered directly from the source–or maybe even some personal modifications can happen right then for customers.
“Events like these give people an extra reason to come into the shop and get to know both the guest designer, but also all the other designers that we carry. And of course we have food and drink to make it festive and fun,” said Hayes with a smile.
Jamie Hayes cutting a custom skirt pattern for a client at Production Mode.
Production Mode also brings the community together with visible mending workshops that are hosted a few times per year. Visible mending is a way to uniquely mend your clothing in a way that stands out, showcasing your personal style and the time you’ve spent loving your clothing.
“We've always done repairs on clothing– usually for free on our work–because we stand by the quality of the garments,” said Hayes. “And we also have a whole visible mending program that we do which could be done on our pieces or on pieces that participants bring to the workshop.”
Ever since its inception, Production Mode has been connecting Chicago with sustainable, high quality fashion. “When I opened up the store, I knew I didn't have enough of my own work to stock a whole store, but I wanted this nice, big space, and so I contacted the people that I knew who I thought might be amenable to working with a consignment model,” explained Hayes.
The designers on display mirror the same ethical values of Production Mode while exploring aesthetics and silhouettes foreign to Hayes. Oftentimes these designers are in need of cost effective spaces to display their wares, making Production Mode a unique blend of rising talent aimed at creating sustainable standards in fashion and an almost legacy staple of Chicago.
“When you band together, you're asking each other questions like, ‘what should I do with this dress,’ and, ‘should I put top stitching on this and that,’ while hanging out and building community,” Hayes said. Chicago’s fashion scene has always been hard to get into, but through the efforts of designers like Hayes, a more unified front can be created.
“It's been nice getting to know other designers. You know Chicago's like that, you think you know everybody, and then it turns out there's all these people you don't know who are also doing awesome things that you should know about!”
