I recently went to Chicago to visit the city for a brief weekend and see my new store on Damen St. I fell in the love with Chicago!

It’s the capital of the Midwest and is chock full of amazing architecture. You can see the grandeur of the Industrial Revolution all the way to the 1930′s.

The people are refreshingly earnest and have a good Midwestern work ethic. You never know… I might move there!

This is me and my friend Terrell in Millennium Park. He’s been a good friend for 20 years. We were hanging out with the rest of the tourists at The Bean.

1930′s Deco Bridge combined with turn of the 19th Century architecture.

An optical illusion under The Bean.

An amazing art installation combining water, light and images. It’s called Crown Fountain- you can read more about it here. It was designed by Jaume Plensa. The children had a sensory overload and went crazy!

Moroccan influenced, turn of the last century building.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry.

My friend playing Mahogany in the Globe. He’s from the south-side.

Baroque Iron work.

So here are a bunch of photos, back stage and during the show, from Jason’s show. His designs were great! We had an excellent time there.

Jason has had an astonishing leap in the last few years. He is a very talented young designer- only 26 -GET INTO IT!

His show is today at 2:00. I’m hoping to get some pictures and will post them on Monday.

In case you don’t remember- he designed Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown:

Anna Wintour has been a big supporter for Jason.

We decided to collaborate this year for his Spring 2011 Collection. We combined a sense of fluidity with metal and a strong lean towards the future.

The cuffs are available on our website by clicking here.

And a gold version of the ring is available here.

I love how people are getting creative with this.

Appropriately named "iJoan".

We’ve received our first couple of photographs of people in front our Joan Collins posters in NYC. Karine’s is the best as she doesn’t live in NYC so she photoshopped herself into a photo which I think is awesome.

Keep sending in photographs and make sure to include your mailing address so you can get a copy of the poster (8″ x 10″- perfect for framing!) signed by me!

Karine

Judd

We’ve launched our Fall ad campaign featuring the iconic Joan Collins! Now it’s time for you to get in on the action…

Take a picture of yourself in front of Joan (taxi or wall) and email your photo to service@alexisbittar.com and we’ll send you a scaled down copy of the original Joan Collins poster signed by  Alexis Bittar. Please include your mailing address in the body of your email when you send your photo. At the end of the contest we’ll pick 3 random entries who will win the gold Molten Cuff featured in the ad.

Fine Print: Contest starts September 8^th and ends September 16^th at noon. All entries must be submitted before contest ends. Alexis Bittar reserves the right to use your photo on AlexisBittar.com for the contest or any future purpose. Entries with no mailing address will not receive a signed poster. Posters will only be sent inside the continental United States. Submitted images must be 1MB or smaller. You may send us as many photos as you like, but we will only send one poster per household. The more creative, the better!