Transforming Spaces, Transforming Places

[This is a blog post I wrote for my store Hugh, which I've written about briefly on here before. Hugh is currently a semi-finalist in the Hatch Detroit competition, which will ultimately award a $50,000 prize to the business with the most votes. I don't usually mix the business of Supergay Detroit with the business of Joe Posch, but it's all becoming a blurred line anyway, so I'd really appreciate your support in this contest! You can vote here once every 24 hours per IP address - so once from home, once from work and once from your phone. Enlist some friends if you can - every vote helps!]

When I was interviewed on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET last week, Craig asked me why I am so bullish on retail in Detroit.  I gave my two cents on why I think Detroit is a great place to undertake a retail endeavor, but I didn't talk at all about why I think independent retail in general is a great idea right now.

The first thing that is so great about independent retail is the emphasis on the unique retail experience, and this has always been my favorite thing about retail and why I'll never stop loving bricks-and-mortar.  When you open a store you aren't just creating a space, you are engaging the imagination of your customers. There's an opportunity to inspire.  It's always primarily about the products you sell, but in the two spaces I've had in Detroit I think the thing that gives me the most pride is the way I created something that really exceeded people's expectations. Here are a few before and after shots:

Hugh - Before

Hugh - After

The second Hugh - Hugh for the Holidays

Mezzanine - Before

Mezzanine - After

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With the shift over the past twenty years toward big chain retail and internet commerce, we've lost sight of the ways that independent stores define our neighborhoods and our cultures, provide a singular point-of-view, and allow us to connect and build community.

I found a copy of a 1983 book called simply Detroit Guide at an estate sale this week.  It's a highly-opinionated take on everything the metro area had to offer at the time, and I was looking at the record stores reviewed: Sam's Jams, Village Records, The Record Collector and of course Harmony House. They were places music lovers could gather to hang out and talk, explore new music, and sometimes even get a job. And while the internet has made access to music easier than ever and taken the conversation global, that local community all but died with the neighborhood record shop.

Likewise, Netflix and on-demand video have taken away many of the meeting (and working) places for film buffs. And bookstores look like the next endangered species.

What is so great about this moment for independent retail is that a well-executed endeavor can help define and transform a neighborhood, and can still build a community. Sure, it's got to be special if it is going to compete with the chains or the web, but that ensures that a shop's personality is strong and enduring. We have dozens of examples of this working in Detroit right now, changing our neighborhoods. And the best thing about it is we just think we're having fun.

That's why a competition like Hatch Detroit is so much more than simply a pot of loot for the winner. It endorses the idea that independent retail is not only alive but more important than ever, and that even though the powers-that-be may focus on bigger, corporate commercial development, there ain't nothing like the real thing. Baby.

Make the Yuletide Gay

We're going to whoop it up tonight on Park Avenue downtown with a couple of parties to get you in the Christmas spirit!  That's right, whoop.

First of all, my pop-up shop Hugh for the Holidays will be hosting an Après-ski party to provide for a little relaxed socializing and last-minute shopping (for the holidays and for Hugh, since it pops-down on Thursday).  Come enjoy an adult beverage and relax by the fake fire as we warm up from that last run.  It starts about 6:30 and goes to about 9:30.

Then the activity moves down the street to the Park Bar for a Merry Christmas Doggy Style!  Enjoy more adult beverages and more relaxed socializing!

And to get you in the mood, here is one of the funniest Christmas YouTube videos ever. See you tonight!

My new store will give you wood

Teak, specifically.

As some of you know, I have dabbled in retail in the past.  My modern design store Mezzanine and retail happening Hugh were the major projects of my 30s, but I wrapped them up this spring - a victim of my wanderlust, not to mention my wandering attention.

Apparently I was not completely free of the retail bug, because I kept buying vintage (which at varying points was a large part of what I'd sold) with the intention of hoarding, or maybe selling on etsy, and when my friend and former landlord called me up to say the space that Hugh had occupied next to Centaur on Park Avenue was still available I figured "why not?" and opened up Hugh for the Holidays.

Hugh for the Holidays is a specially-themed version of Hugh - the idea is that Hugh goes on a swank ski holiday and classic bachelor pad style crosses paths with Scandinavian chic.  The store is all about affordable cool gifts, drinking well and entertaining with style.  It's a lot of vintage with a healthy dose of new merch - so think Mad Men glasses on teak serving trays, or stainless steel bar accessories from Denmark, or vintage metal Thermoses for sneaking hot toddies into the movie theater (right Stephan?)

If you live in the area and are moderately inclined, stop in for a little dose of hip shopping on Park Avenue, right behind the Fox Theater.  Open weekday evenings and weekend days until Christmas Eve.  Fan Hugh on Facebook, why don't you, to get all the details?  Or check out the website at lovehughlongtime.com!

A Date with Hugh

I've given notice about benefits for the Ruth Ellis Center here in the past, specifically the very fun Detroit Massacre Halloween parties that have been held the past two years, and I'm about to do it again!

The Ruth Ellis Center, located in Highland Park, provides short- and long-term residential and support services for at-risk GLBT youth in the Detroit area.  This means all those kids who get kicked out of their homophobic homes have a place they can go and don't have to take to the streets.  The story of Ruth Ellis is inspirational for anyone interested in the history of the gay and lesbian community in Detroit, and the Ruth Ellis Center does an amazing job of carrying on the spirit of her work.

This Thursday there will be a super fun shopping event called "A Date with Hugh" that will benefit the center.  10% of all sales that night will be donated to the center, and as an added bonus champagne will be served and I am happy to report that Ruth Ellis Center supporters tend to be more attractive and interesting than your average gay bar riff-raff.  Everyone is probably familiar with the whole "shop for a cause" thing, so if you haven't done it lately now's a great time!

The event is this Thursday, from 5 to 10pm at Hugh, the bachelor pad boutique, located directly behind the Fox Theater on Park Avenue.  Read more about Hugh at www.lovehughlongtime.com!  And why not post this on your Facebook page and get your friends to come?

To get you in the mood, you may now listen to one of my favorite Pet Shop Boys songs!

My One December Post

Life never gets less busy, so at this rate January will have 1/3 of a post.  So look forward to that.

This isn't even a full-fledged post! It's an announcement of some holiday cheer, though, that you could experience tonight on Park Avenue!

First off let's facilitate a little commerce, as Dyspathy likes to say.  There is a swell party thrown by Toby Barlow, intergalactic ambassador for Detroit, and Phil Cooley, BBQ ambassador and king of the hipsters, at Detroit's newest shop and only retail happening, Hugh.  I've, uh, been in the store many times and it sells very very cool gifts for men.  Get your last-minute holiday shopping done at the Dave Bing Party!

When you are done getting your shop on, head on down the street to the Park Bar for an all-new Doggy Style Holiday Celebration!  Things really get going about 9:30 when the videos start, so have a cocktail and mix & mingle to a jinglin' beat!

Have a wonderful Christmas, a terrific New Year, and maybe we'll talk more in 2010!

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Shopping Gay

The great thing about being gay is that everyone thinks you have an elevated aesthetic sense and refined tastes. And while that may occasionally be true, the bad part is that people assume it is just because you are gay. And that leads to things like a recent encounter I had with a young woman I was introduced to who, upon finding out I am gay, said, "Oh my God I would love to go shopping with you!"

Oh how fun for me.

The real deal isn't that the gays automaticaly have great taste, it's that we pay attention and we care. It's all learned. And that means that everybody can have great taste! In the immortal words of style icon Brenda Dickson, "Fashion is something that can be acquired. And you too, be it male or female, can be very fashionable."

This time of year the concern is less fashion and more fashionable gift-giving, and so while I sit here watching the snow swirl around my Mies building, listening to Barbra's A Christmas Album and burning my Ralph Lauren "Holiday" candle (gay gay gay), I'm going to point out two great Detroit shops that are not only gay-calibre shopping destinations in the city, but also "best in show" for the entire SEMi region.

Mezzanine
206 E. Grand River, 2nd Floor, in the Merchant's Apparel Building

Second-floor retail may seem counter-intuitive, but in Detroit none of the usual rules apply. It works to the advantage for Mezzanine, which is a high-end modern design store. The space is basically a loft space in a historic building near the Detroit Opera House, Small Plates and the new YMCA, and the overall look of the store is pretty much minimal gallery-esque with an absolutely fabulous view of downtown.

Even though it is home to the $4000 sofa, they also have a lot of gifts and home accessories at lower price points. There were things from $7 up when I was looking around the other day. They carry a curated selection of merchandise and feature the big names like Jonathan Adler, Alessi and Rosenthal as well as a lot of lesser-known lines and some vintage modern items as well. I would describe the aesthetic as northern European modern.

Finding Mezzanine is a little tricky the first time - you have to look up for the window signs, or just cool lighting. If you go to the corner of Broadway and E. Grand River, the entrance to the building is on GR. You ring for the elevator and an elevator attendant comes down and brings you up in the old manually-operated elevator. It's a totally "downtown" experience. Oh, and it's owned by a 'mo.

Here are some gift items I thought were great:

These vellum wine garlands are my new hostess gift.

Jonathan Adler scented candles and frames in tasteful white porcelain.

This is the pitcher/vase I have always loved at Eve the Restaurant in A2.

These little porcelain figures were so effin' cute, I want that nativity scene so
I can celebrate my lapsed Christianity with irony.

Bureau of Urban Living
460 West Canfield Street, in the Canfield Lofts


Bureau of Urban Living is the great little home store everyone wants in their neighborhood, so if you live in Midtown you have totally scored. Bureau is full of great modern accessories for the home and office, with an eye on fun-but-tasteful design and affordability.

Bureau is designy in a way that is clearly put together by a graphic designer. It's like a nice neutral graphic background of a store with lots of great color and groupings for wow factor. Bureau is a tiny little store but is packed full of great things. I love the simple homewares - my wastebaskets, napkins and candles all come from their, and I often get gifts for my nieces there as well! Bureau is a good place for gifts for girls, by the way!

Bureau could not be easier to find. It is on the ground floor of the Canfield Lofts, just west of Cass Avenue. They have a lovely red sign out front, and they are next to Motor City Brewing Works and across the street from the Traffic Jam and Snug.

Here are some fun things I saw in there yesterday:

The now-famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" Detroit-style: on a t-shirt. (Posters also available!)

I just adored this grouping.

Some of the great textile items by local artist Carl Oxley III!

Especially for this weather!

If these places are good enough for the discerning homosexualists of the world then they are good enough for those of you who aspire to good taste - and now you don't need us to shop with you! So do yourself a favor - patronize two great Detroit stores AND get better gifts than you will anyplace else!

Both stores are open with extended holiday hours through Tuesday, so get to steppin'! You can thank me later.

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While I Was Out ...

I am sorry for not posting anything lately, but I am a busy professional.

The DAADS Benefit Preview Party for the Modernism Show was great fun, mostly because I love pretty things. I don't do much shopping typically because what I really love is weird unique shopping and that can be an infrequent option here. But when I get it I rejoice, so obviously a civic center full of cool booths of modern love was exactly what I needed.

Of course the place was gayer than a Key West Christmas, both in terms of vendors and guests. One of the most fabulous booths had about sixteen things in it that cost a small fortune and a mincing Manhattan art dealer looking down his nose at people passing through. Or maybe it was just me. Regardless, his stuff was flawless.

The most wonderful thing about the party was that I ran into so many people I haven't seen in forever, and I mean that in the best way. Suffice to say, it didn't disappoint (except for the fact that everything I loved was a little too expensive).

After the benefit a whole slew of us gays went down to D'Mongo's Speakeasy in Capitol Park.

Now D'Mongo's has been open since last summer, and has been uber cool for a while. I referenced it in my post about "The Deuce" last fall, and I finally made it in a few months ago. It's only open on Fridays, which makes it a difficult stop for a popular scenester with a full calendar like myself.

I took a bunch of photos once when we were there earlier this year, but I hesitated to post about it because honestly, I didn't want to promote it too much. It's an insanely cool spot, not overly fancy, just really authentic and perfect. And I didn't want it to be overrun with people who just don't get it. So I held off about the posting.

HOWEVER, since then the Detroit News and Model D have blown the code of silence about D'Mongo's (I expected more from you, Model D, please learn to keep a secret a secret), so I guess it's ok to tell you that I love it.

Check those links above for the history, but it really feels like the old time Detroit place that was mothballed for a decade that it is. Actually it kind of smells like mothballs until the smokers kick in. The crowd skews accessible hipster, the space is just a gas, and the entertainment varies from awesome whoa to awesome wow.

The little photo montage below will give you an idea of one of my early visits this winter ... the cool staff, the girl playing her autoplay Casio keyboard for entertainment (she was brilliant, by the way), the candles that melted over the years but stayed in their candle holders, the ... well, go check it out for yourself. It's really just great. Just don't be one of those douchebags who showed up last week with cigars and Bayview Yacht Club golf shirts. Thanks again new media.

If I really cared, these photos would align perfectly.

SASS the following night was once again the feel-good gay hipster dance party of the year. I don't what to say that I haven't said before, but I spent half the night just kind of watching it all with a happy glow in my heart. I swear to God you could throw a boutique run by Stirling in there and it's Todd's 1987 all over again (I am remembering that correctly, aren't I?)

Oh and to wrap it all up, Doggy Style has continued to be the fun meeting spot for downtown gays that it was intended to be. I have to say it has exceeded my expectations. My expectations, of course, being me and five friends. But exceeding even exceeded expectations was last Tuesday when, late in the night, the lights were turned down, Nina Simone was turned up, a woman removed her top and we were gifted with the twirling breasts of fire. Doggy Style is on fire.

No really, the Opera Cape??

Spring cleaning has its pratfalls. Even though the first day of spring doesn't hit for a few days I took to cleaning out my closet earlier this week and oh! the things you come across. Most memorable from this particular revisitation was a particular sweater I've owned for, jeez, 16 years now that I got from the J. Peterman catalog. The Nantucket Sweater.

For those not familiar with the phenomenon that was the J. Peterman catalog let me acquaint you with a bit of retail history. In the late 80's a little ad appeared in The New Yorker advertising a single, simple coat. It wasn't a photo, it was just a drawing and a phone number for a catalog. And somehow it managed to completely captivate the imagination of the Upper East Side and other people who buy clothes as much for the fantasy of the item as for the item itself.

My introduction to J. Peterman is almost as involved as the story of the Hemingway Cap. As a newly-out college student in Boston in the late 80's I became intimately acquainted with a Harvard faculty member quite a few years my senior. It wasn't quite dating, but I thought it was very evolved, very adult. He was handsome, but maybe just a touch past his prime, which of course is hot in its own way.

He was the real deal, in that trying to be the real deal way. He drove a Saab 900, which wasn't considered classic at the time. He lived in a lovely but small house walking distance to Harvard Square. He was a good cook. He had the perfect little beagle named Toby - I would dogsit/housesit sometimes as a break from campus life. He used Dr. Bronner's liquid peppermint soap before it was a "thing" and turned me on to the Hermes scent that is still my baseline fragrance. He had a sleigh bed. And when the hot Harvard law grad from Puerto Rico showed up randomly one night while we were having dinner at his house ... well, college is for experimentation, right? His walls were lined with photos of him from his world travels and he told me, "You don't have to be rich, just have rich friends."

When we were set to walk up to Harvard Square to see some performance art one night in the late fall of 1989 he pulled out his J. Peterman purchase, the "Opera Cape." It's not offered anymore, but it was really a quite a thing to behold: a very dramatic, heavy jet black wool cape lined with crimson satin. I was fascinated - I mean who wears shit like that? He was the first person I'd met who not only had the J. Peterman catalog, but actually bought from it. Believe me, after that I became a regular reader!

It wasn't until I'd moved to Washington, DC, and was making a sensational $18,000 a year on Capitol Hill that I finally spent money on something from J. Peterman. My boyfriend at the time routinely reminded me that I was a "situational" shopper. I would buy something because "it would be the perfect sweater for an early September weekend on Cape Cod." Or "wouldn't this be great for skiing in Vermont?" Which you know, I did maybe once.

And indeed I was the perfect victim, because not only was I still hung up on living in New England after my preppy-ass upbringing in Grosse Pointe, but I was the total romantic when it came to shopping. So this Bay Rum sounds fascinating, I'll buy it! (Unfortunately it does not smell fascinating, but I kept it.) The Counterfeit Mailbag seemed like an amazing purchase from the drawing, but brand new it kind of looked like rawhide (I returned it, after I made the fingernail scratches they recommended ...).

Returned / Not Returned

Ultimately almost everything I bought failed to meet my expectations, and I returned it. I guess that's why J. Peterman imploded when they went to the retail store fomat - nothing lived up to the glorious expectations of the ad copy and the slighty vague watercolors. But the Nantucket Sweater lives on in my wardrobe. It turns out that even though it's actually NOT all cotton, and NOT as romantic-cool-summer-night as you'd want it to be, it's a decent sweater to pair with sweatpants and at this point it's actually vintage American commerce. And now I've had it for almost the full 18 years mentioned in the catalog copy!

J. Peterman still sells some of the same things they've been selling since 1987, and I am sure somewhere right now someone is buying a band-collar shirt. Rest assured at this point that they're straight, and totally Upper East Side-ish, in the academic Woody Allen's Annie Hall sense of the word.

But once upon a time J. Peterman pandered to every prep's fantasy, gay or straight. And the gays, with their aspirations (of romance? of drama? of a normal life?), provided the perfect customer. Or at least, I did.