Fashion In Detroit – Motor City Denim

  Made in Detroit

What better subject for my final Fashion In Detroit post than Motor City Denim.  Detroit native and Project Runway alum, Joe Faris, created the line which is manufactured right here in Detroit. 

The edgy collection – for men and women – includes jeans, skirts, dresses, western shirts, t-shirts, outerwear and accessories.  Fitting for a line manufactured in Detroit, it’s branded as “Industrial Couture,” and mixes high-fashion elements with an industrial edge. 

Faris is a casual kinda guy and wanted to bring that easy but fashionable appeal to the t-shirt and jeans crowd.  The pieces have a cool rocker chic, but they’re very accessible and wearable. 

 

 

Faris has spent his career working with denim and leather, which made this line the perfect fit – and allowed him to take his first steps toward establishing an apparel industry in southeast Michigan.  He realized through the success of the first Fashion In Detroit that there was potential for an industry here.

For years he has dreamed of starting a small factory here and controlling production.  As he was contemplating how to do this, he found Mark D’Andreta, president of TD Industrial Coverings, a Sterling Heights maker of coveralls for auto industry assembly line robots. 

D'Andreta, was looking to diversify production, especially after a tough time in the automotive industry.  He had virtually all the machines necessary to manufacture the product – and the line was born. 

The partnership is the perfect marriage because Joe can be the creative force behind the design of the product and Mark can run the shop. 

Motor City Denim Co. is aggressively working to ramp up production and have clothes in stores in time for the holidays.

 

 

Capping off the show was a catwalk with five celebrities that Joe collaborated with to support breast cancer awareness month. 

Joe teamed up with WXYZ Channel 7’s Christy McDonald and Erin Nicole, Detroit 1-8-7 star, Erin Cummings, WDIV Local 4’s Lauren Podell and Detroit’s own Karen Newman.

The ladies each designed their own garments to be auctioned off to support breast cancer research.  

Don’t they look great??!!

   A final thanks to photographer Winnie Jeng for sharing her runway photos and to FORMzine for allowing me to publish them. 

FormZine: web, Facebook, Twitter

Winnie Jeng: web, Facebook, Twitter