Gamma Player

All Eyes on Gamma Player

After traveling all over the world, Jeff Mills, renowned dj and
techno-master, with his wife Yoko Uozumi, a former Sony Music
executive, brought the international fashion scene to Wicker Park in March 2007, through the creation of their high-end boutique Gamma Player, meaning “Cosmic Adventurer,” which is now part of the fashion uprising of the area.

Mills, 44, and Uozumi, 43, also founders of the internationally recognized music recording label Axis, designed Gamma Player with the idea of infinite space, which came to fruition with painted black walls, ideal for hanging art installations and highlighting the edgy, yet minimalist fashions. Gamma Player is also equipped with music, books and accessories “with a goal to blur the lines between art, fashion and music,” says Mills.

The musically inclined and artistic pair use art, particularly minimal and surrealist art, to influence the fashion trends selected for the store. “Comparing these places around the world with the fashion level here in Chicago gave us the idea that we could possibly fill a gap with what is available here,” says Mills.

Designers available at Gamma Player for the spring/summer 2008 collection include: Agga B. (Chicago), Txell Miras (Barcelona, Spain),
Slobodan Mihajlovic (Florence, Italy), Sweet Delice (Seoul, Korea), Eric LeBon (Paris, France) and Firma (Berlin, Germany), among many stylish others.

They are the exclusive carrier of Chicago’s Agga B. since her autumn/winter ’07-’08 line. Her style “is kind of a 60s look but fresh and sophisticated,” says Uozumi, who loves Agga’s white cotton dress with a ruffled collar.

The collection at Gamma Player is limited with only three sizes of each item on the rack. “So some lucky customer will be the only one in the U.S. or at least in the Midwest to have that piece,” says Uozumi.

The duo makes four major buying trips per year to handpick pieces from Europe, Asia and South America. “We like to actually see and touch the items when purchasing and also talk, listen and learn from designers and the brands on what the idea is behind the collections,” says Mills.
-Hilary Shaffer

Gamma Player
2035 W. Division St. in Chicago, 773.235.0755, www.gammaplayer.com