Chicago fashion group banking on Obama

CHICAGO, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Officials with a Chicago fashion group say U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will be wearing their fashions while accepting his party's presidential nomination.

Homi Patel, CEO of Hartmax Corp., Obama will be wearing a wool suit created by the Chicago fashion group when he officially becomes the Democratic presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Chicago Sun-Times said Thursday.

While Obama's wardrobe may help bring enhanced attention to the Chicago fashion industry, Patel said the senator's fashion choice was nothing new for Hartmax.

"We don't talk about this because we've been making suits for presidents, vice presidents and senators for more than 100 years. The reason we continue making them is because we don't talk about it," he told the Sun-Times.

Yet fashion expert David Wolfe says Obama and his wife, Michelle, could soon be influential in the fashion industry thanks to changing trends.

"Our current overdone, trashy, casual dress-down thing has reached saturation, and the fashion pendulum is ready to swing to something classier and classic and also cool," Wolfe told the Chicago Tribune.

"The Obamas represent good taste, and we haven't had good taste in fashion for a long, long time."