Ryan Lee Vincent

Pop culturally, 2005 was a rough year: Blink-182 went on an indefinite hiatus, Dumbledore died and Gwen Stefani made it impossible to spell bananas without her guidance. Needless to say, we were in a pretty vulnerable place, leaving us open to making poor fashion choices to cope with these hardships.    Time Out Chicago was born that year to chronicle Chicago's fashion hits and misfires, from trucker hats that thrift stores won't even carry now, to the right way to tie a winter scarf. Here’s a shout-out to the "top" 10 fashion trends from ’05, if only to remind ourselves why we wont ever be giving them a hollaback, girl.    RECOMMENDED: More on Time Out Chicago's 10-year anniversary

Kanye was already dominating the Web, 50 Cent took us to the candy shop and Tom Cruise lost it. Though it certainly will be forever immortalized as the year of Time Out Chicago's launch, there were plenty of other great things going on in 2005. To celebrate our 10th anniversary today, we're taking a look back at the best of everything in 2005.   RECOMMENDED: More on Time Out Chicago's 10-year anniversary On TVComedy was reborn in 2005 with the near decade–long legend that was The Colbert Report launching alongside The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and How I Met Your Mother.  Though only one is still with us, their legacy lives on inside us ...that's what she said. In musicIn Destiny's Child's farewell year, Mariah Carey took center stage with her best-selling album, The Emancipation of Mimi, slaying pop powerhouses like Gwen Stefani, Ciara, Kelly Clarkson and the Black Eyed Peas for the top spot.     Sufjan Stevens touring his 2005 album, IllinoisJoe Lencioni/Wikimedia commons       Chicago was wrapped in the ever-loving embrace of Sufjan Steven's tender little voice that hurts so good, debuting his top-rated album of the year, Illinois.   In the moviesThe six-year-long slog that was the Star Wars prequel trilogy ended, and though we're not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, it left us all cautious for the sequels slated for release later this year.   Also in '05, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and t

When the Kickstarter to end all Kickstarters was announced in 2011, Mead McCormick, a University of Chicago graduate, was among more than 200,000 individuals who applied to be a part of a four-person team to embark on a one-way trip to establish the first human settlement on Mars as early as 2024.   On February 16, the shortlist of candidates dubbed "The Mars 100" was announced, with McCormick in their ranks.  In her application video, McCormick greets supporters in the only acceptable way to apply for a space mission: donning a Boba Fett helmet. McCormick believes that "because the whole project is going to be televised and broadcast for the whole planet, it would be good to have somebody up there who knows what they're doing with documenting the experience" and her double-threat bounty hunter/filmmaker know-how might just earn her a place on the mission. The largely publicly funded Mars One Mission not only aims to set up camp on Mars, but will also broadcast to the world the selection process, training and mission, hoping to gain some private funding by securing a TV deal a la Red Planet reality show. In true Big Brother fashion, the final stages of candidate selection will be influenced in part by audience support and voting. Keep an eye out during the next round of candidate selection for the former Chicagoan/future Martian.  

  Sling night-stand tablePhoto courtesy of SAIC       It's usually only through reality TV shows that students and amateur designers are able to see their designs available to the public via an internationally known brand. But for students in the School of the Art Institute's Industry Projects class, designing for the public is part of the curriculum. The class's first collection, in partnership with CB2, is now available on the furniture company's website and in CB2 stores nationwide. Tim Parsons, professor of SAIC's Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects department, says "the partnership has been very successful in terms of giving our students real-world experience and the opportunity to design for an international retailer."                                         The collection's theme is "microliving," a trendy term for dwelling in tiny apartments—something students know plenty about. Participating SAIC students developed a range of multi-functional and space-conscious products, from a set of paradox nesting tables, designed to form the illusion of a three-dimensional cube when arranged together, to a "deep dish" coffee table with removable cushions for additional seating. Deep dish table and cushion setPhoto courtesy of SAIC       Even if you're not trying to save space, the designs are undeniably cool, merging CB2's know-how with SAIC's knack for killer concepts. These aren't just pieces of furniture, they're interactive parts of a modern, practic