The fashion industry has a big part to play in Detroit’s comeback, according to Karen Buscemi, founder of the Detroit Garment Group Guild.
And that’s why the guild – better known as DG3 in fashion circles – is looking for a place to call home. It has been operating out of Buscemi's Rochester Hills home.
Buscemi said this week that the nonprofit is actively working with city and state officials to find a space in Southwest Detroit for a multipurpose facility that will serve a manufacturing facility, an incubator for fashion designers, retail space and DG3 offices. It is looking for 10,000 square feet and hopes to move in by next spring.
“Our facility will be the root of our new garment district,” she said.
Depending on how quickly everything comes together, Buscemi said this facility will – like the DG3’s industrial sewing program, launched last month – be the first of its kind in the state. The industrial sewing program and new headquarters will work together to help lure other manufacturers to the city.
Buscemi, the 45-year-old former editor of the defunct Detroit-based Styleline magazine, said while the industrial sewing program is a start, the state’s fashion industry needs more education on the business side of fashion.
“Most of the students going through the fashion programs in colleges in Michigan are learning their craft but they’re not learning how to be business people,” she said.
“So it’s more like they’re graduating with the understanding that they’re just going to get a job working for somebody else. And a lot of these designers want their own lines and do their own thing and they have absolutely have no idea how to do it.”
Last month, Bedrock Real Estate Services LLC announced upscale menswear designer John Varvatos is returning to his native Detroit with a store at 1500 Woodward Ave. Buscemi said that in 10 to 20 years, Varvatos will be seen as the pioneer who made a big statement and commitment to locate in Detroit and spurred other designers to do the same.
In addition to searching for new space, DG3 has launched an Instagram account (search “Detroit Fashion Scene”) to be a go-to place for fashion editors in New York and other states to see true Detroit fashion. “Right now, we are completely looked over by the national media as a fashion community and that is one of the things we can do to help change that,” Buscemi said.
Anjana Schroeder: aschroeder@crain.com. Twitter: @anjanaschroeder
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