Culture
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The Alston, One Chicago
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Hosted by Jon Cotay and co-hosted by The Alston, with sponsorship from Pernod Ricard, Art de Vivre brought AKIRA's bold runway styling to One Chicago on October 7.
Art de Vivre brought AKIRA's extroverted style to The Alston on October 7, with Jon Cotay hosting, the restaurant co-hosting and Pernod Ricard sponsoring the evening. Inside One Chicago, the presentation had a clear point of view: dressing for a night out could be an occasion in itself.
That proposition suits AKIRA. The Chicago-born retailer puts considerable emphasis on styling, on the combinations that turn an individual purchase into an outfit. At The Alston, the most compelling looks pushed that idea: a generous coat worn with the ease of eveningwear, jewelry taking on the presence of a garment, a familiar shirt given a more decorative role.
The timing gave those choices added resonance. The autumn 2026 collections have reopened several avenues for dressing up, from enveloping outerwear to Jazz Age embellishment. Art de Vivre offered a Chicago expression of that appetite for clothes with presence, in a room where fashion, hospitality and music shared the evening.
Cotay helped establish AKIRA in 2002 with Eric Hsueh and Erikka Wang, friends from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Its first boutique in Bucktown/Wicker Park grew into a national retail business, while Chicago remained central to the company's identity.
His route into fashion was unusually practical. In a 2012 interview with A Drink With, Cotay recalled working in nursing and real estate before Wang suggested opening a store. The founders painted the space themselves. Asked what he did outside work, he answered, "For me, socializing is a fun job."
That remark offers a useful way to understand his role at Art de Vivre. Cotay's career has connected retail with the business of bringing people together, a connection continued through Jon Cotay Events. Hosting an AKIRA presentation in a Chicago restaurant drew on both sides of that experience.
Host Jon Cotay with Sara Kim at Art de Vivre.
The Alston brought its own sense of ceremony. Led by chef Jenner Tomaska, the French-influenced steakhouse occupies the third floor of One Chicago at 750 North State Street. Its cooking combines a wood-fired approach with French technique; its interiors take inspiration from the grand salons of 1920s Paris. That reference gave the evening's elaborate dressing an apt setting, with runway guests seated close to the models.
Event sponsor Pernod Ricard is the French spirits and champagne group behind brands including Absolut, Jameson and Perrier-Jouët. The company describes its purpose through conviviality, the pleasure of bringing people together. At Art de Vivre, its involvement placed a global drinks company alongside a Chicago retailer and a local restaurant, three businesses connected by the rituals of going out.
Guests gather at The Alston before the Art de Vivre runway.
Styling has become one of this year's most interesting fashion subjects. For its fall 2026 collection, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons built a presentation around layering, mixing tailoring, sportswear and embroidered dresses on a recurring cast of 15 women. The combinations made the same wardrobe yield different possibilities.
AKIRA approaches the outfit from the retail floor, where its personal styling service is part of the brand's offer. Art de Vivre made that approach tangible. Belts established a waist within generous volumes; substantial jewelry gave an otherwise spare neckline its character. The choice of what went with what carried much of the personality. That is also the part of a runway presentation a guest can take home without reproducing an entire look.
Accessories, garments and model preparations before the Art de Vivre runway.
The statement coat has a particular logic in Chicago, where outerwear often makes the first impression. Vogue's fall 2026 runway survey identified generous, face-framing collars alongside a renewed interest in close-fitting clothes. The season offered both shelter and exposure, sometimes within the same outfit.
At Art de Vivre, the coat often did the work usually assigned to an evening dress. Plush volume, emphatic collars and patterned surfaces gave outerwear enough presence to remain central indoors. The styling beneath it mattered: exposed skin, a narrow base layer or a defined waist kept a large silhouette from losing its shape.
The same attention to proportion ran through the tailoring and asymmetrical layers. Belts reorganized volume; uneven hems interrupted familiar outlines. Cleaner fitted dresses offered another kind of confidence, concentrating the effect in a single line. Across these looks, impact came from deciding where to be expansive and where to exercise restraint.
Outerwear, tailoring and silhouettes from Art de Vivre. Includes runway and rehearsal photographs.
Eveningwear's renewed interest in the 1920s provides another useful reference. British Vogue identified Art Deco evening dressing among autumn's themes, citing beaded tunics and flapper-inflected decoration. At Chanel's fall 2026 show, Matthieu Blazy explored lowered waistlines and iridescent chainmail. Ornament was being reconsidered through silhouette as well as surface.
AKIRA gave that vocabulary a more extroverted expression. Pearl-like strands became the framework of an outfit, while fringe carried its outline into motion. Lace and reflective surfaces played with concealment and exposure. These treatments did more than decorate a finished shape: they helped determine how the garment occupied space and responded to the wearer.
The bronze-toned gown offered a quieter counterpoint, letting drape and the fall of the fabric carry the effect. The men's styling extended the same freedom through an embellished white shirt and a scarf at the waist. Evening dressing emerged as an approach to styling, with room for both elaborate surfaces and a restrained silhouette.
Eveningwear and embellished looks from Art de Vivre. Includes runway and rehearsal photographs.
DJs Jason Hsu and Hannah Heavin participated in the evening, adding music to the gathering around the runway. Heavin is a Chicago-based DJ and vocalist whose practice spans DJ sets and live singing. Their presence connected the presentation to the city's working music scene and to the social life these clothes were made to enter.
That setting gave Art de Vivre its local character. An AKIRA co-founder was hosting, a Chicago restaurant was opening its room to fashion, and DJs were part of the occasion. Guests had a reason to dress with intention, too. The evening brought a retailer's styling ideas into the kind of company where an outfit acquires a life: among friends, with music, and with somewhere to be.
DJs Jason Hsu and Hannah Heavin, followed by models Julia and Greta at The Alston.
Guests and models at Art de Vivre, before and after the runway.