Here is Brush Park Sporting Some Circa 1990 Fall Fashions

This post was authored by Amy Swift.

What better way to say "fashion forward" than to photograph models in their new fall clothes in front of Brush Park buildings? On a recent trip to Preservation Detroit's archives we found this photo shoot from September 1990 in Detroit Monthly (a now defunct city magazine). The piece was entitled "Wild Abandon" with an intro by Chuck Bennett explaining just how well crumbling homes go with, say, leopard print. Or something like that.

Here now, we quote from Detroit Monthly:

"Like the heroine of a romantic novel, a true Detroit woman is always on the edge. Amid the weeds and ruins of once-magnificent Victorian mansions and avenues, her spirit survives. ~ She's a Detroiter, and fiercely independent. She'll never surrender to the fashion dictates of New York, where scribes tell her an "international ethnic feeling" is the last word for fall 1990. To her, such outfits make women look like bag ladies. ~ Nor will she bow to second-skin, body-hugging clothes. Essence of glorified streetwalkers, she says. ~ As for Seventh Avenue's most "innovative" designers, who are busy pushing A-line dresses, jumpers and bell-bottom pants, she says: Let sixties-inspired garb stay in the sixties. Please. ~ She thinks Detroit's best-dressed women should wear clothing that is romantic, sexy and delightfully feminine, in sensuous and fluid fabrics and cool and soothing colors. ~ She favors short skirts, fur trim, quilting (in every fabric imaginable), velvet (for day and night) and bare shoulders (including strapless sweaters, bustiers and sexy evening sizzles). ~ It's a season that allows Detroit women to be just who they are — with abandon." — Detroit Monthly, September 1990

At the end of the article there is a special thanks to the DPD officers that kept the crew and models safe during the shoot — so much for "wild abandon" after all.

· http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2012/10/two-brush-park-homes-bite-the-dust.php [Curbed Detroit]
· $198 K Fixer-Upper Still On Market After Stint As Movie Set [Curbed Detroit]
·Before and After [Curbed Detroit]