How Designer Maria Pinto, Favorite of Michelle Obama, Built a Fashion Empire in Chicago
Maria Pinto. Photo: Yuya Ohashi In our long-running series, "How I'm Making It," we talk to people making a living in the fashion industry about how they broke in and found success.
If you're a Chicagoan with an interest in fashion, you've almost definitely come across Maria Pinto. Since launching a line of intricately detailed scarves in 1991, Pinto's name has been synonymous with the city's established, albeit intimate, fashion scene. When high-profile clients like Oprah Winfrey and, most notably, Michelle Obama came knocking, her national name recognition skyrocketed — but with a large dedicated local consumer base, Pinto, also a native Chicagoan, is one of our own.
Her 30-plus-year design career has been long and varied. After attending fashion school, Pinto first worked as an assistant to Geoffrey Beene, a storied womenswear designer and longtime favorite of the CFDA. Upon returning to the Midwest, Pinto launched her own brand and oversaw the opening and closing of her own high-traffic Chicago boutiques, including locations on Michigan Avenue and in the West Loop; in 2010, two years after the First Lady wore one of her pieces to the Democratic National Convention, Pinto shuttered her storefront and announced plans to take a break.
Now, it's time for her next chapter. In November, Pinto launched her latest ready-to-wear venture, M2057, with the help of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign and with full-fledged seasonal collections in the immediate pipeline. M2057 has already begun to pick up steam locally, and it's no wonder why: Pinto created the brand to directly cater to professional women and the busy, multitasking lives they lead. Each piece is machine-washable and made from a heavy, elastic material, almost like neoprene, which, I'm assured, remains completely durable even throughout the longest of business trips. The price points, largely under $500, are more reasonable than her previous endeavors. Everything is intentional and representative of how women both shop and get dressed today.
