Detroit fashion trucks offer mobile take on shopping - Washington Times


DETROIT (AP) - You’re familiar with food trucks, now make way for something equally delicious: fashion trucks - mobile stores brimming with clothing and accessories.


The first metro Detroit fashion trucks - mobile stores that have been popular on the West Coast for a while now - hit the streets last spring, making stops at art fairs and festivals, Eastern Market and at private shopping parties.


As the weather warms up and the trend becomes more mainstream, you’ll probably see more of these trucks.


Here are three that are scheduled to be out and about.


Plus, all three are available for private shopping parties - which means they’ll come to your house or, really, most anywhere.


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Katherine Campau, 31, of Royal Oak has a longtime interest in fashion and in finding clothing and accessories that are responsibly sourced.


She dreamed of opening a store, of becoming part of Detroit’s retail revitalization, but found the cost of establishing a brick-and-mortar shop to be financially daunting.


Then, an idea: Instead of a food truck, how about a fashion truck?


Campau, who works in advertising, researched the idea and learned that fashion trucks were popular in other parts of the country but hadn’t quite arrived in metro Detroit. What an opportunity, she thought.


Her husband, Robert, scoured the Internet looking for trucks that could be converted into a store. They looked at seven trucks before finding one that was in good shape and tall enough to allow shoppers to stand in comfortably while being wide enough to accommodate easy browsing.


In January 2014, the Campaus started rehabbing a very unglamorous Detroit Edison work truck. They installed a wood-looking floor with carpet trim. They removed drawers and compartments that lined the truck’s interior walls and installed funky foil wallpaper and racks for displaying enough skirts, tops, dresses and jewelry to make a stop in the truck intriguing to shoppers with a variety of interests.


“I never get tired of hearing people say, ‘Oh, my, it’s like a real store in here.’ I like hearing how surprised people are about it and how excited people are,” Campau, who started her business last spring, told the Detroit Free Press (http://on.freep.com/1G7OSXn )


Named for the Sloane Square and Sloane Street shopping districts in London, Campau’s fashion truck, Sloane Street Style, carries clothing, accessories (including cool tote bags) and jewelry ranging in price from $20-$150. “We carry mostly transitional pieces that can take you right from daytime at work into an evening, depending on how you accessorize it,” Campau said.


Much of it is made in the U.S. from small or independent labels. The rest is sourced through fair trade practices.


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