VISIT ABC7 WINDY CITY WEEKEND

Excerpt from ABC7 Windy City Weekend 07.11.25 

Raven Smith Retrograde Fashion Show

 
Clothes designer and entrepreneur Raven Smith has become one of the youngest changemakers in the city.

Smith first appeared on the show ten years during its incarnation as “Windy City Live.” She was a student at Morgan Park Academy, where she launched a clothing brand called “Straight From The Go,” where proceeds from all sales go to victims of gun violence in Chicago.

Since then, she’s become one of the youngest changemakers in the city and one of the youngest recipients of the Norman Bobins Award. She is also a two-time cum laude graduate of the University of Missouri and will return this August to pursue her master’s and possibly a PhD.

Smith talked to Chiaverini and Warner about her fashion show that she is curating on Saturday at the Epiphany Center for the Arts, 200 S. Ashland Ave. The show, called the Retrograde Fashion Show, will feature a celebrity signed “Straight From the Go” t-shirt. That shirt was signed by local celebrities, including Val Warner, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Doors open for the Retrograde Fashion Show at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available on Eventbrite and at the Epiphany Center for the Arts website.

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About Epiphany Center for the Arts

Conceived with the vision to return Epiphany to a place for people to congregate, the shuttered, historic Church of the Epiphany has been preserved and adapted into the Epiphany Center for the Arts, an iconic cultural hub “For the Good of Art, Entertainment and Events.” Thoughtfully designed, the exemplary 42,000-square-foot campus located on the artsy edge of Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood boasts three distinct venues (Epiphany Hall, The Sanctuary and The Chase House) and a stunning array of amenities. The campus also features eight galleries that serve as a platform for a diverse selection of artists from Chicago and beyond. Epiphany’s exhibitions showcase the work of women, the LGBTQIA community, artists of color, and the disability culture. Epiphany’s top priority is to curate programming that is inclusive, while providing a place established artists can collaborate with emerging ones. Epiphany’s programming serves to unite community and artists alike while “Bringing Chicago Together.” Visit www.epiphanychi.com to learn more.