Chicago Fashion Week wrapped up Sunday after nearly two weeks of fashion education and social events, exhibitions, in-store activations, retail markets, galas, and runway shows, all aimed at elevating the city to be a major player in the international fashion industry. Launched last year, the second iteration again focused on local designers, designers of color, sustainability, and low-cost or free events, important at a time when prices are continuing to rise across the fashion industry.

While a majority of last year’s slate of Chicago Fashion Week (CFW) events were collaborations with other local fashion organizations like the Chicago Fashion Coalition, the Costume Council of the Chicago History Museum, and the Curio—which split from CFW after curating last year’s opening runway show and held their own Chicago fashion showcase earlier this month—this year’s events were primarily spearheaded by founder John Leydon and ten advisory council members. 

Following the success of the first CFW last year, which featured over 50 events across the Chicago area, Leydon aimed to expand subsequent iterations. Over 60 were planned for this year, and Leydon added new members to the 2025 CFW advisory council, hoping the group of fashion retailers, designers, academics, stylists, brand founders, and creatives would help to build on the diversity of the previous year.

Unlike other regional and international fashion industry events, CFW was designed with everyday consumers in mind, making learning about and engaging with fashion more accessible to those outside of the industry. “Our model is completely different from the major fashion weeks: New York, Paris, Milan, those are the trade events. So the general population usually never has an opportunity to attend those kinds of shows,” Leydon said ahead of the October 9 CFW launch party at the venue formerly home to Chez Paree nightclub. “We’re excited about evolving the concept. It has been proven that there is an appetite for this type of programming.”

Tickets to attend events ranged from free to $200, with many being around $10 to $50, expanding the concept of fashion week events beyond something just for celebrities and industry professionals to something that “dispels the mystery,” Leydon said.

Stephanie Neuerburg, a well-known Chicago-based actor and fashion creator, was among the local fashion influencers who attended this year’s events. 

During the first weekend, Neuerburg attended the Kone Ranger Fall ’25 Runway Show at the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club; the Aesthete and Decadent of the 1990s exhibition (a tribute to the late fashion editor and stylist Isabelle Blow); and Insidious Studios’s spooky Freak City Core Runway show.

For Neuerburg, who also works at a Ravenswood clothing store, it’s been exciting to see CFW give a platform to talented people within the fashion industry and attempt to grow the city’s impact in the space, even when there are several other things the city is already known for.
“Chicago has a long history of being a fashion and shopping destination that I don’t think it necessarily has on a global scale anymore, especially compared to other cities. New York and Paris, and all these places are just like these hotbeds for established, upcoming, and established designers. But I think that’s what’s so cool about Fashion Week for Chicago is that it’s creating a platform for the creative people who live here and have lived here forever and have been making this work for so long.”

Though the brainchild of Leydon and his collaborators, there have been previous local fashion events that some cite as laying the groundwork for CFW, one of the most notable being Fashion Focus Chicago, created in 2005 by former mayor Richard M. Daley to invigorate the city’s fashion industry through runway shows and exhibitions.

In the year since CFW got its start, the fashion industry has gone through major shake-ups. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have affected key manufacturing countries like China, Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam, and an executive order nixed the de minimis loophole that once meant any packages under $800 imported from abroad could avoid being charged extra taxes and duties, making it more expensive for both small-scale designers and consumers.

“I’ve heard it firsthand. Everything is more expensive. . . . So with the tariffs, obviously, raw materials are more expensive if [designers] can get them at all,” Leydon said.

This can make producing clothing more expensive, and in turn leads to higher prices for consumers. But Leydon said intentionally supporting designers whose prices may rise, opting to invest in higher-quality pieces less often, instead of frequently buying cheaper mass-produced items, will ultimately be a better financial decision for consumers.

“Starbucks doesn’t need my money, and these big retailers don’t need my money, but these small designers do, and one piece can make a significant difference in their ability to continue to buy fabric and produce garments,” he said.