Tickets Here ($175 General Admission)
Barbara Bates 2022 Fall Collection Show
Fashion Reception: 4:30pm
Runway Show: 6pm
Hosted by Shirley Strawberry & Jeanne Sparrow
Sounds by: Gene Hunt
Guest Appearance: Kool Mo Dee
About Barbara Bates:
Summary:
Barbara Bates is known in Chicago and nationwide as a leader in creating fashionable styles for celebrities as well as the “everyday” man and woman. A self-taught fashion designer, Bates was born and raised in Chicago. She has dressed some of the worlds’ most fabulous fashionistas, entertainers, celebrity clients, community leaders and influential figures, including Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Harvey, Whitney Houston.
More Details:
The Barbara Bates Designs design studio and showroom is located in Chicago’s South Loop.
Self-taught fashion designer Barbara Bates was born on June 27, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Elvin Hicks, was a school teacher and her mother, Vera, was a housewife. Bates went through Chicago's public school system and graduated from Marshall High School in 1962.
Bates worked a variety of jobs after graduating from high school, where she frequently designed the clothes she wore. In 1984, while working as a secretary for the First National Bank of Chicago, Bates began selling her clothing out of the bathroom during lunchtime. This experience led Bates to design clothes full-time and, two years later, she opened a 700 square-foot showroom, which is located in Chicago's South Loop.
In 1999, Bates founded the Bates Foundation to provide custom-made prom dresses to underprivileged or hard-to-fit young women from inner-city schools in Chicago. Bates' desire to make dresses for these women comes primarily from her own trials as a teen mother. Bates remembers the alternative school she attended as a pregnant fifteen-year-old and promised to make prom dresses for the girls that returned to high school and graduated. Bates has two sons, Eugene and Kristopher.
Bates Designs continues to be a leader in the world of fashion. Exotic fabrics and the use of leather trim are among the hallmarks of her designs. Bates has outfitted numerous celebrities including: Sinbad, Michael Jordan, Whitney Houston and Mike Tyson.