Jamie Hayes

BA English Lit, 1999, Washington University; BA Fashion Design, 2003, Columbia College Chicago; MA Social Work, 2011, University of Chicago. Concurrent Position: Owner/Designer, Production Mode; Co-owner/Designer, Department of Curiosities. Exhibitions/Presentations: Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Arts Club of Chicago, Wayne State University, Detroit; Columbia College, Chicago; Marshall Brown Projects, Chicago. Publications: Billboard Magazine, Crain's Chicago, Chicago Magazine. Awards: Changemaker, Chicago Fair Trade.

Jamie Hayes' inter­ests lie at the inter­sec­tion of fashion, art, labor, and iden­tity. Her approach is both collab­o­ra­tive and customized. She believes that clothes should fit one's body (not the other way around); that people should wear what flat­ters and inter­ests them rather than what someone else dictates is fash­ion­able; that style is a form of self-expression; and that everyone in the chain of produc­tion of clothing should be paid a living wage.

She has worked in the fashion industry since 1999, and in the field of immi­grant and labor rights since 2009. Her recent work merges these two paths: she has designed for fair trade orga­ni­za­tions including SERRV, Inter­crafts Peru, and Threads of Yunnan, and has volun­teered as a Campaign Leader for Chicago Fair Trade, helping to pass an ordi­nance mandating that apparel procured by the City of Chicago be sweatshop-free. She is the owner and designer of a slow fashion line of clothing and accessories with a focus on collaboratively designed materials, Produc­tion Mode, and also co-designs a line of luxury slow fashion lingerie and night­wear, Depart­ment of Curiosi­ties.