When he was little, Nelson Sanders remembers his parents dressing up almost every time they went out. And his parents weren’t the only adults in Detroit who cared about their appearance after they took off the work clothes.
“There was crazy style here,” Sanders said. “My parents didn’t have much, but they’d always make sure they were decked out. On Friday nights in Detroit, you had to come with it.”
While dressing up in a suit and tie or your nicest dress is no longer the norm for a night out, that doesn’t mean fashion is no longer important here. That’s why Sanders started The Seen, which started off as a collective of fashion-conscious individuals highlighting neighborhoods and businesses, and has recently morphed into a creative marketing and talent agency.
“When people think fashion, they think of Paris, New York, London,” Sanders said. “Most wouldn’t say Detroit. I wanted to show people around here and the world what Detroit style looks like. There are a lot of genuinely stylish people here, but they just don’t have the platform to showcase it.”
Sanders isn’t the only one working to raise Detroit’s profile as an important fashion city, and not just in the way it dresses. In design, manufacturing and distribution for the fashion industry, Detroit is growing its local talent and businesses to become a fashion hub.
Keeping talent local
Like Sanders, Karen Buscemi was frustrated with Detroit’s inability to realize its potential in the fashion industry. While the editor of fashion magazine StyleLine, she kept noticing industry talent leaving the state, almost always for New York City or Los Angeles. “They felt they couldn’t make it here,” Buscemi said.
To remedy the problem, Buscemi founded the Detroit Garment Group (DGG), an organization that supports Detroit’s fashion industry in a variety of ways. For starters, DGG runs a business incubator program out of TechTown, which has mentors and services for the various aspects of running a fashion business, as well as access to industrial sewing machines and design studios.
“Michigan has a lot of colleges that have really good fashion programs,” Buscemi said, “but not one offers a business program — they just teach the craft. Students graduate, and don’t know what to do with the skills.”
