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Announces the Grand Opening for “Threads of Imagination” exhibit, featuring historic Madame Alla Ripley and contemporary artists

Join us for the Grand Opening!
The Alla Ripley Bannister House at 1620 West 102nd Street designed by George S. Bannister. The Bannisters were members of Bethany Union Church and the Ridge Country Club.
Alla Ripley was active with the Chicago Dressmakers Club. She became president in 1914 and transformed the Club into the Fashion Art League of America. The League held semi-annual meetings that included demonstrations.
One of Alla Ripley's designs as it appeared in The Day Book publication of the early 1900s
Another Madame Ripley fashion from The Day Book.
Fashion designers often used their own family members to model their creations before there were professional models. This is Alla Ripley's daughter Jean showing one of her mother's fashions in 1919. Jean was one of the first female landscape architects in the country, a graduate of U of IL – Urbana.

The next event on the horizon is the Grand Opening and Reception for "Threads of Imagination," the exhibit at RHS that explores art and fashion through the creativity of five Ridge artists. See the attached flier.

Alla Ripley Bannister was a famous "modiste" who designed and created fashions for women in the early 1900s. Alla lived in Beverly in the Craftsman-style house built by her husband, architect George S. Bannister, at 1620 West 102nd Street. (Bannister is also famous for being the architect of the "Rotary House" at 10856 S. Longwood Drive.) Alla Ripley's great-niece has shared a number of family photos with us, including photos of the house when it was first built.

Alla was called "the maker of modes" and "the very last word in style" during her years as Madame Ripley. Her studio was on Michigan Ave., just down the street from the Art Institute. She dictated fashion styles through the bulletins she authored as president of the Fashion Art League of America. It was said that her fashions were "marked by a grace of line that suggests a Parish original." Some of her designs from publications of her day are shown in the exhibit.

Four contemporary Ridge artists are also in the exhibit. Judie Anderson, Maggie O'Reilly, Nicole Burns and Sandra Leonard all have unique approaches to "fashion art" and plan to be at the Grand Opening. This is your chance to stop by to meet them.