“Is it cloudy outside? Maybe Sunday. Are you in love? Maybe Sunday. Grandma’s ninety-second birthday? Maybe Sunday. Is it Friday, yet? Maybe Sunday.”
So said McKenzie Thompson and Jason Guo, Maybe Sunday co-founders, when they presented their newly established company on Kickstarter just a little more than a year ago. Thompson and Guo, both then-recent graduates of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), decided to blend fashion, design and contemporary art to create a Chicago-based streetwear line that features full-bleed photographic patterns on a variety of high-quality fabrics. Their initial collection included shirts, scarves and hats in a variety of designs with names such as Liquid Sunshine, Girl Scout Cookies, Lemon Dropper, Last Night’s Party, The Art Historical and Sugar Crush, featuring close-ups of gummy bears, cigarette butts, sun-yellow lemons and clear blue skies.
Their flagship store, which represents numerous emerging and established artists and designers, is located on Halsted Street in Pilsen’s Chicago Arts District and is a space of bright white walls and a poppy-filled, fake grass turf floor. There the temperature is always kept at seventy-five degrees and the idea that the grass is always green is very much alive.
“Maybe Sunday can be viewed as an art piece itself,” says Thompson. “[It’s] a self-sustaining art installation, revolving like a stream of consciousness, reflecting the ideas of the individuals represented within as they create new things.”
Alongside their own designs sits a curated variety of fashion and design trends. They now represent JaJa (by Janis To, also the store’s general manager), Pear Nova, Supreme NYC, Zach NF and Tanner Bowman Design, among others. From exclusive collectables, to contemporary art and designed objects, to custom acrylic business cards, the dynamic duo strives to be inclusive of all creative types. “Jason and I are grateful for our interdisciplinary education that geared us with a broad skill set and led us to break the philosophical boundaries of how art should be made, presented and experienced,” says Thompson.
“We are focused on building a team where all of our interests intersect,” says Thompson. “Collaboration is at the crux of our internal ethos. Each act of working together with our friends brings about new ideas, new aesthetics, and fuller expression into what we make.”
Maybe Sunday took its name from “[that] time to relax with friends and family, the day you wish would never end.” As Thompson says, the name aims to “evoke the experience, the freedom, self-expression and creativity, being more than just a vacation or getaway, but a shift in mentality towards truly enjoying your life, everyday.”
The alternative concept store pushes their artistic boundaries by incorporating art, music, sculpture, photography and design into its broad palette of wares and programming. The group frequently hosts events, from fashion shows to maintaining a presence during the Chicago Art District’s 2nd Fridays Gallery Night to a “winter wonderland pop-up shop extravaganza” at Soho House.
On Friday, February 12, they will host their second annual Vitamin D Party. The party promises a sunny vibe, not only with new artworks on display and new apparel for purchase, but with an artificial sunlight station inside their store.(Vasia Rigou)
Ben Schulman is the editor of the design section of Newcity and co-host of “A Lot You Got to Holler,” the Newcity podcast on design, architecture and urbanism. His work with Newcity is one of many ventures he engages in to communicate the value of design and cities. Ben serves as the communications director for Small Change, a real estate crowdfunding platform that works to catalyze the development of transformative real estate projects. Previously, he was the communications director for the Chicago chapter of The American Institute of Architects, editor of Chicago Architect magazine and communications director for the urban think-tank, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). His writing has appeared and been noted in outlets such as ARCHITECT Magazine, Belt Magazine, ICON, New Geography, Streetsblog, The National Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pop City Media and as a contributor to The Urbanophile, among others. When not writing about cities, Ben serves as an editorial assistant for the journal New Media + Society, and helps head the Contraphonic Sound Series, an attempt to document cities through sound.
