ABOUT Us
The Chicago Historical Costume Society (CHCS) is made up of Chicago-based sewists and historical costume enthusiasts, originally founded in 2021.
CHCS welcomes members from all over the midwestern United States or anyone who is willing to travel to the Chicago area. Individuals at all levels of costumery, historical accuracy, and sewing ability attend CHCS events.
We host a variety of monthly events year-round, both in person and virtual.
Our Mission
The Chicago Historical Costume Society is dedicated to making the study, wearing, preservation, and re-creation of historical clothing more accessible in the Chicagoland area. Through monthly programming of vibrant in-person and online events, we strive to provide our diverse community with tangible ways to connect with fashion history. We believe that learning about the history of clothing and wearing historical fashions can help people appreciate our shared histories, feel empowered to see themselves represented in history, and become more responsible clothing consumers.
Vintage Style, not Vintage Values
CHCS Board of Directors
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Marissa Croft
President
Marissa is a Ph.D. candidate and teacher who studies the rhetoric of clothing during the French Revolution. After seeing Pride & Prejudice (2005) at an impressionable age, she taught herself how to sew and currently has over 15 years of garment construction experience. She is passionate about making educational fashion history content, promoting the sustainable use of textiles, and creating engaging events for CHCS members. When she’s not sewing outfits for outings with CHCS, she enjoys thrifting, gardening, and hanging out with her pet pigeon.
You can find her work on Instagram and TikTok under the handle @sinistra.marissa
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Alaura Playko
Vice President
Alaura is a Chicago-based wedding and portrait photographer with a love of opulence and a flair for the dramatic. Her first historical costume was Marie Antoinette for a 5th-grade project, and she began wearing vintage as a teen. Whether at work, through costuming, or through the antiques she collects, Alaura is a storyteller at heart and is inspired by historical aesthetics. In her free time, you may find Alaura gardening, tending to her chickens, or relaxing with her partner, daughter, dog, and cats.
Find her at @ladyplayko or see her photography work at @alauracreative on Instagram.
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Emily Drazenovic
Administrative Director
Emily is a business software developer and consultant by day with degrees in Computer Science and Interactive Media Technology, but has always been interested in history, especially “everyday history,” learning how everyday people did everyday things. Emily definitely wanted to be an archeologist when she was little and was a self-proclaimed Egyptology expert in 2nd grade. She began sewing in middle school and started her first historical garment with newfound free time late 2020. In 2021, she helped found the CHCS. Besides sewing, Emily loves gardening, crafting, movies, and taking care of her dog and cats.
You can find Emily on Instagram as @emily_makes93 or on TikTok @m_drazzi.
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Sara Walls
Education Director
Sara is a multimedia artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago specializing in performance art utilizing dance, historical costume, and technology to create portraits, emotive sketches, and commentaries on the world around her. Growing up around art, portraiture and history in central Texas, Sara was encouraged at an early age to sew and create, a passion that exploded during her study of Costume Design and Dance at McCallum Fine Arts Academy. After completing her first intentionally historical garment in 2019, creating historical clothes with CHCS has become her most beloved passion. With the inception of CHCS Sara seeks to promote a philosophy of creativity, sustainability, and innovation for the costume community at large. When she isn't furiously sewing a new garment, Sara enjoys writing, thrifting and going dancing.
Find her under @monaxmaire on Instagram & Historically Adequate on Youtube
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Ariana Hocking
Programming Director
Ariana (they/them) is a fibers artist active in the Chicago fine art scene, currently working by day planning student trips and tours across the US. In 2020, after reading a book set in 1903, they went down a rabbit hole of magazine scans from the year and fell in love with the silhouettes of the clothing, the pictures of Edwardian interiors, and the how-to guides on turning last year’s garments into this year’s latest fashions. They began their costuming journey shortly after, drawing on their background of technical sewing and pattern making, as well as love for fine details and embellishment. Finding and joining the incredible community of CHCS has only deepened that passion. Ariana also loves writing queer fantasy with romantic subplots, making fantastical faux taxidermy, and taking care of their senior cat.
You can find them on instagram @magicalgraveyardofcorpses
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Iridessence
Marketing Director
Iridessence is a model, self-portraitist and performance artist based in Chicago, with sought-after experience in creative direction and set design. Her work often features vintage, theatrical and historical themes and marries them to radical self-love in a socio-political scape that marginalizes people of size and color.
Find her at @iridessence on Instagram
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Our Logo
Our logo was beautifully designed for us by Grace Koehler. You can find her on Instagram @mistresspennywhistle.
Land Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge our Chicago-based events and activities take place on the ancestral lands of the Council of the Three Fires (comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations), as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations. Before it was stolen from them through colonization and forced removal, this land was a site of trade, travel, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other native tribes. The state of Illinois is still home to over 100,000 tribal members.