Margarita Barry, the publisher of
I Am Young Detroit, will launch a new retail venture that allows Detroit's emerging fashion and design artists a chance to sell their wares at little to no cost in a creative physical space.
71 POP, one of the winners of the IDEA: Detroit conference sponsored by Crain's Detroit Business and Advertising Age, will be the city's first pop-up retail store devoted exclusively to emerging local designers. Barry hopes to showcase at least 71 new designers at the store's brand-new lobby retail space at the
71 Garfield Artist Collective in Midtown's Sugar Hill Arts District.
"It's really intended for emerging artists," she says. "These can be college
students or people in the community, people who haven't shown their work
elsewhere. Specifically, I want to work with apparel designers --
graphic designers who sell tshirts, or fashion designers, for example."
Calling her venture a "pop-up shop with a twist," Barry says the space will allow young and emerging designers to work or create, while 71 Pop sells their wares for a limited time -- handling the nuts and bolts of running a business, from marketing to online sales to ringing up items at the cash register.
"The artists come in, install their shop around whatever their aesthetic might be. If they have an installation they want to build out, they want to paint the walls, if they want to go crazy -- they do all that," she says. With 71 POP handling the operations, the designers can work or go to school.
"We're allowing them to pursue their passion," she says. "It's really for people who would otherwise not have that opportunity because they have their day grind. These are people who go to weekend markets to sell their goods, or they set up etsy shops. What this will allow them to do is have a more concrete space, a place where your friends can come out and check out your stuff."
71 POP's companion
website will highlight its impact by
documenting the artists living, working, or showing in and around the 71
POP space.
To help cover costs, Barry is launching a
Kickstarter to fund scholarships for some of the young designers. She's also teaming up with bigger brands who can help sponsor the cost of installation for select designers.
"Between the two of those options, there's a good chance you'll be able to show in the space for free, if you get accepted," she says.
Find out more about 71 POP at
detroitpop.com.
Source: Margarita Barry, founder, 71 POP
Writer: Ashley C. Woods
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.