Europeans have a fascination with Detroit and it’s that attraction to Motor City that Aki Choklat will capitalize on with the Detroitissimi exhibition he is creating at Pitti Uomo.
The Linda Dresner-endowed chair of fashion design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit has worked with a long list of fashion companies over the course of his career including Zara, Puma, Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson and others.
After joining the College for Creative Studies in 2016, he set a few goals: to elevate the school’s fashion program to rank among the best in the world and “to bring Detroit to the national scene.”
Choklat knew that as rich as Detroit’s fashion talent might be, it could never compete with the Garment District in New York City. So he set out instead to “create bridges and satellites outside Detroit.”
It was one fortuitous meeting that catapulted this idea into overdrive. Choklat said he attended an Italian consulate event in Detroit where he met Alyssa Tracey, director of international trade at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Although the group was working primarily with Detroit’s other industries, notably defense and automotive, Choklat asked if she would be interested in supporting the fashion industry as well.
The answer was yes.
That reaction led him to Florence, Italy, and Pitti Uomo. As a designer, he had attended the show numerous times over the course of his career so he drew upon those relationships to broach the idea of creating a consortium of Detroit brands to show at the fair.
Once again, the answer was yes.
That was a year ago and once the idea was green-lighted, Choklat and the MEDC spread the word to any Detroit-based fashion brands that wanted to be considered for inclusion.
The result is called “Detroitissimi” and it will include five brands — Detroit Denim, Boswell, K. Walker Collective, B.May Bags and Deviate — as well as a special collaboration between the students of the CCS and Carhartt, which has called the city of Detroit home since its founding in 1889.
“We are firm believers in experiential learning,” Choklat said, adding that he was “sick and tired of standing in front of a classroom telling my story.”
He looked to fashion brands to collaborate with the students instead so they could gain some firsthand experience in the industry. In 2019, Calvin Klein challenged the accessories design students to reimagine the future of that category of fashion, and in 2021, the institution collaborated with Stuart Weitzman to create their vision for the future of footwear.
In March, the college partnered with its neighbor, Carhartt, on a 12-week program where students in the graduate color and materials design program as well as undergraduate fashion design students created pieces of sustainable fashion from materials that would otherwise have been discarded.
The students were split into four groups — Farmers Only, Labor to Leisure, Re-Source and Sequel Femme — and tasked with designing for different categories of workers.
The Farmers Only group used puffer jacket samples, face masks and scrap leather to create a pair of pants and two pairs of shoes.
The Labor and Leisure students designed a bag, jacket and vest intended for factory workers, using decorative, bright zigzag stitches, natural dyes and optical fibers combined with Carhartt leftover materials.
The Re-Source group used laser perforation and embossing to produce an apron, coverall and a backpack for workers in the creative fields. And the Sequel Femme students designed a pair of sneakers, boots, a jacket and a skirt intended to be comfortable for garment workers.
“They took our products that had the landfill in their future, and they gave them a new life,” said Ben Hayden, vice president of global product design at Carhartt. “They breathed functionality into them, and I think what impressed us the most was not only did they create things that were functional — they created things that were beautiful, too.”
He said that for Carhartt, working with the students was “a great inspiration and a reminder to us to bring that beginner’s eye to the projects that we work on.”
Choklat said using Carhartt for this semester’s project was a no-brainer. “Their global headquarters is down the street.” It made it easy for the company to bring their discarded fabric and trim, “dump it on our floor,” and see what the students could create.
The pieces will be brought to Pitti Uomo but only as part of the exhibit. They will not be sold because they’re one-offs. “Maybe the next one we do could be commercial,” he mused.
But for now, it will be the other Detroit-based brands bringing products to sell across a variety of categories.
Detroit Denim, a 13-year-old company founded by Eric Yelsma, will be showcasing its handcrafted Made in U.S. jeans and accessories. Boswell, a contemporary millinery brand founded by fashion photographer Boswell Hardwick, will be on hand as well. K. Walker Collective, a Black-owned brand from Ken Walker, offers high-end streetwear and tailored clothing for men; B.May Bags, from founder Barbara May, creates handcrafted leather handbags and accessories, and Deviate is a genderless streetwear/workwear brand from sisters Cassidy and Kelsey Tucker.
Michigan-based Octane Design will design the venue for the collective and muralist Mike Han will bring Detroit street art element to the show through live painting exhibitions during the show.
“The word Detroit is getting so much chatter,” Choklat said. “So we know we have to deliver.”