A Clybourn Avenue retail landmark is getting a new lease on life. The designer cooperative known as Made To Fit is reopening Saturday as A. Arsenault Designer Cooperative under the new ownership of Andrea Arsenault, a professor of fashion design at the School of the Art Institute.
Made To Fit, 2229 N. Clybourn Ave., closed its doors Feb. 16 after former owner Leigh DeLeonardo got married and moved to southern Illinois. Arsenault, on sabbatical this year, took over the store’s lease and invested her own money updating the selling space.
The reopened store will feature the work of 17 designers who create everything from contemporary apparel to handmade hats to jewelry. Many of them are the same ones who helped make Made to Fit a popular spot with trendy Lincoln Park denizens.
But Arsenault plans to broaden the mix of offerings and also is contemplating creating a men’s wear line herself.
“I felt there was a need for a place between a gallery and shop for designers to show their clothes. I don’t want to call it `art to wear,’ because this is wearable, functional clothing,” she said.
The store will still operate as an artist cooperative, which means the designers pay rent, work a day and a half each month and contribute a small percentage of sales to the enterprise. But this is definitely a money-making venture. “I hope to make lots of money,” Arsenault said.
And what happens to the store next year when Arsenault returns to her full-time teaching job and becomes head of the department? Not a problem, she says. “I’m a good juggler.”
Close to the customer: For people with HIV or AIDS, being able to get details about the medications they take and the schedule they must follow is a serious matter. Many are on a demanding regimen requiring a complicated pharmaceutical “cocktail,” and the possibility of drug interactions and side effects is very real.
Walgreen Co. to the rescue. The Deerfield-based drugstore chain recently opened a full-service pharmacy in the Howard Brown Health Center, the leading private provider of HIV and AIDS services in the Midwest.
Stuffed into a modest 440-square-foot space in the lobby of the Howard Brown’s new facility at 4025 N. Sheridan Rd., the Walgreens pharmacy could become a prototype for a new kind of pharmacist-patient relationship, the company said.
“HIV care is very complicated and oftentimes, in a typical commercial setting, pharmacists don’t have the time or privacy to give patients the attention they need,” explained pharmacist Glen Pietrandoni.
At Howard Brown, pharmacists will work with physicians to provide customized care to each patient. “With an in-house pharmacy, our clients will be offered the option of more comprehensive on-site care as well as convenience,” says Eileen Durkin, the clinic’s executive director.
On the move: Sears, Roebuck and Co. has appointed Lyn Kirby president of Circle of Beauty, its in-house brand of skin care and cosmetics, effective March 23. She replaces Pierre Rogers, the former president of cosmetics maker Lancome USA, who spearheaded Sears’ effort to create its own cosmetics line and held equity in the joint venture. He stepped down as Circle of Beauty’s president and CEO last summer.
Kirby, 44, reports to Robert Mettler, president of merchandising for Sears’ full-line stores.