DETROIT — The Motor City, having lost some of its automotive mojo with the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, wants to diversify, and it’s taking aim at the fashion industry.
Fashion in Detroit held its second annual show on Oct. 22 and 23 at the Motor City Casino Hotel, featuring almost a dozen designers, as well as students of fashion and design from colleges in southeast Michigan. The production, complete with 40-foot runway, relied heavily on volunteer efforts from scores of local stylists, hairdressers, cosmeticians, photographers and promoters, with the goal of stimulating fashion-related economic activity in the region.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“We’re basically a factory town, so we’re trying to build awareness for Michigan in a time when so much of garment manufacturing for the U.S. has been shipped overseas,” said Joe Faris, an organizer of the show and a native of Southfield, Mich., who left town 20 years ago.
Faris has worked for Bugle Boy as a designer and was a top six finalist on “Project Runway.” His business venture, Motor City Denim Co., has begun producing garments at TDIC of Sterling Heights, Mich., a company that makes “clothes” for industrial robots used in automotive assembly plants so their gears aren’t fouled by paint and other contaminants.
“We were like two flashlights in the dark and then we found each other,’’ said Mark D’Andreta, president of TDIC. “I had lost a lot of my business when GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy in 2009. Joe needed a place that could sew.”
Karen Buscemi, editor of Style Line, a fashion and beauty magazine owned by the Detroit Media Partnership, said, “Most people, when they think of fashion, don’t think of Detroit. Back in the day we were a very fashionable city, and to this day we have so many designers, jewelry makers and so forth, mostly showing at stores around town.”
One of the city’s hottest and most successful fashion outlets is the youth-oriented Moosejaw, which started as a store for mountaineering and camping gear in Keego Harbor, Mich., in 1992 and grew to seven stores and an extensive online business, featuring The North Face, Patagonia and Arc’teryx outdoor apparel and gear.
Moosejaw has 200 employees, and more than half of its business comes from its Web site.
“We were known for cotton goods, T-shirts, sweatshirts,” said Allison Capaldi, a brand manager in charge of Moosejaw’s private-label brand, which is in its second year and has expanded to a yoga collection for women. “Our customer base is very broad; we are high-end in customer service and want to be the most fun retailer you can shop.”
More than a few high-end Detroit weddings serve as a showcase for the talent of Italian-born, Toronto-based Ines Di Santo, who began designing wedding gowns when she was 15. Her designs are featured at Roma Sposa, an atelier based in Birmingham, Mich., owned by Anna Castaldi-Roselli.
“The goal of this show is to get people to think Michigan and to shop in Michigan,” said Castaldi-Roselli, who attended Fashion in Detroit to help Di Santo and the models.
With so many empty factories and idle machine tools, plus tens of thousands of unemployed skilled workers, Michigan has potential as a low-cost venue for garment manufacturers, Faris said. One Chicago-based manufacturer of industrial uniforms is considering a Detroit-based expansion into theme garments for casinos and other entertainment venues, he said.
Leslie Ann Pilling, an event producer and co-founder of Fashion in Detroit, said, “The idea is to create a showcase for designers and to provide job opportunities and use talent.” The automobile industry “knows how to cut leather pieces for car seats. We can reprogram those machines so they cut leather pieces for clothes.”
The first day of the show, Friday, was lightly attended. Saturday’s crowd was impressive, said Kathy Remski, co-owner of Real Style, a Clawson, Mich.-based talent agency for the fashion and movie industry. Her firm, with Pilling, co-directed the production.
“Of the 44 models we hired for the show, 42 of them were from the area, and the two who came in from out of town had a local connection,” Remski said. “The North American Auto Show is here in Detroit every year. Fashion in Detroit gives people a chance to see another side of what we’re about — that we have style.”