Sarah McLaughlin

What it is Acrylic paintings, hand-painted silk shirts and a line of jewelry under the name Shikama.

Who she is After dabbling in a few college art programs—fashion design at the Illinois Institute of Art and painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—the 25-year-old Cleveland native opted to take her experimenting out of the classroom and explore on her own terms. “I feel like not finishing school is, for me, a way to get my hands on things,” McLaughlin says. In the past few years, she’s co-produced the jewelry line Aragon Ltd. with her friend Meghan Lorenz, designed whimsical window installations (also with Lorenz) for venues such as the Rainbo Club and Wicker Park boutique Eskell, and more recently, explored the notions of physical space, scale and light through painting, fiber arts and jewelry design. “Right now they’re small projects to get the wheels turning to see if this is something I want to do.”

What she makes Working in a variety of mediums, McLaughlin doesn’t focus on collections so much as she studies concepts through related one-of-a-kind pieces. Composed of primarily found and reused materials, recent pieces include vintage silk shirts hand-painted with spiderweb-like designs ($60–$80), bullet case and suede tassel earrings ($30–$40), a fringed necklace made from a shredded tie-dye shirt ($90) and statement-making knotted rope pendants spanning the width of a collarbone suspended from vintage chain ($100 each).

Where to find it Dovetail (1452 W Chicago Ave, 312-243-3100, dovetailchicago.com).

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