Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/67043
style setter Marie Whitney's first collection includes blazers in four styles and eight colors. blazing a trail MARIE WHITNEY GIVES THE BUY-ONE MODEL A SOPHISTICATED UPGRADE. by susanna negovan S urrounded by stylish blazers of her own design, Marie Whitney jokes that she's out of her league—and she doesn't mean Major League Baseball, though her husband is the Chicago Cubs' new president of baseball operations Theo Epstein. With a bachelor's degree in biology from Boston University and a master's degree from Harvard, her own fashion brand is part of a self-taught career shift that's been years in the making. And in June, with the launch of Two Penny Blue, Whitney finally steps up to the plate. 94 michiganavemag.com Her first collection includes jackets in four styles and eight colors, including handwoven and hand-dyed silks. "I wanted to do one thing and do it very well," explains Whitney. "You can never have enough really great jackets." But there's also a symbolic reason she chose to focus on a professional staple: "The business is a social enterprise," says Whitney. "The mission of the company is to educate and empower girls and women around the world." To that end, for every jacket sold, Whitney will donate a school uniform to a girl in Africa; to start the program, she has partnered with Daraja Academy, a secondary photography by maria ponce berre; hair and makeup by frances tsalas at chicagoemergingartists.com