Photo Essay: Detroit Fashion Week

This week is Fashion Week in the Metro D and Metromode’s photographer Marvin Shaoni headed out to the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak to get an on the runway and behind the scenes look.

The local hit? Ferndale-based Femilia Couture clearly created the biggest buzz, with its organic fabrics and sophisticated styles.

Designer Joe Faris, who spearheaded Fashion Week and has made appearances on Project Runway, compared Detroit’s fashion industry prospects to garment houses like leather designers Schott NYC, who manufacture their products in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and American Apparel and True Religion who have developed a successful industry in L.A..

“I look at my own city Detroit, where I’m from –which at the end of the day is a production city, we know production, we know manufacturing– and there’s a huge pool of talented people here,” Faris says. ” I would love to see some sort of garment industry [succeed] here.”

“Detroit inspires what I like to call industrial couture,” he continues. “You look at brands like Carhartt and Made In Detroit, and then put in people like Peter Sorn and Kevin Hall… that’s what this event is about. It shows the diversity, the work wear element with the high fashion – which shows how diverse our community truly is.”

Even though the event was truly a scene to seen at, Marvin dug the warm and friendly vibe, pointing out it was a big departure from your stereotypical East or West Coast fashion show.

“You expect it to be hoity-toity and pretentious,” Marvin says. “But people couldn’t have been nicer. They were clearly excited to be a part of the event.”

Check out Marvin’s photo essay and get a sense of what you missed…  and if you want a great accompanying soundtrack open this in a separate window and play while watching.