- Now we've got a truly Detroit story for you about the historic business district known as the Avenue of Fashion.

Now this stretch of Livernois between Seven and Eight Mile Roads was a bustling hub for exclusive clothing stores during the 1950s and '60s.

It declined after the arrival of shopping malls.

But now the avenue of fashion has rebounded with high-end retailers, many of whom are African-American owned.

One Detroit's Bill Kubota has the story.

- Livernois.

Everybody that I know always called Livernois.

- [Bill] Livernois might be called Livernois the further north you go, but here around Seven Mile Road on Detroit's west side, it's the Avenue of Fashion.

A shopping destination once again.

Not just retail, there's fine dining too.

- The restaurants really create the foot traffic.

For each restaurant, you might have two, 300 people come through a day and they just walk up and down the street.

- [Bill] Six, seven decades ago, the Avenue of Fashion then, B. Siegel, a major Detroit retailer known for its women's wear with an outlet here and more dress shops at a strip of stores called Williamsburg Row.

The 1967 rebellion led to the Avenue's long slide.

But in recent decades, clothiers have come back, like the Times Square men's store, helping hold down Williamsburg Row on Livernois since 2010.

What was it like down here?

- It was..

It was a struggle.

A lot of, you know, buildings have not yet been occupied yet.

- [Bill] Far more recent challenges, a major street scape project in 2019 that reduced customer traffic and sales.

Then came COVID, then the bounce back.

The streetscape appears to be paying off for proprietors like Algernon Bartell, a staunch Detroiter through and through.

Bartell tells us how his Times Square store came to be.

- I used to hate New York.

Until I went to New York.

I don't know if you remember, Stevie Wonder had that song "Living for the City" when he was blind and he'd hear the sounds of New York and that's just how it was.

♪ Living just enough for the city ♪ Mm.

And then I was like, wow, this city just blew me back.

- [Bill] Some of the merchandise sold off the rack, but Bartell specializes in custom tailoring.

- Custom name, Algernon Bartell.

Then the shirt, Algernon Bartell.

Some of the things I like in that little plaid, it's the older suit, but it still looks good on me.

My story is so unique, 'cause I started from a raggedy van.

The clothing business, someone was going outta business and asked me could I sell a suit?

I'm like, "Sell no suit."

So I tried it.

I would go to barber shops, go to churches, go to people that I knew, and sold clothes outta my van.

- [Bill] To get outfitted by Bartell, it starts in black.

- Black suit.

Then you need this blue suit.

We call this the Obama blue suit, my number one selling suit.

A tan.

Everyone need a tan.

You need a tanned suit.

Summer.

This is a nine month year suit.

Can't wear it in December to April, but you need a tan suit.

It's a nice suit.

Gray.

Always need a gray.

You could never go wrong with a nice, clean gray suit.

- [Bill] Bartell's friends and customers, a who's who of lawyers, politicians, celebrities on the Times Square wall of fame.

Along with the suits, the ties, the shoes, he's dressing young men for the prom.

Well this is Detroit, the Avenue of Fashion, which offers what you might call Detroit swag.

- You can go anywhere in the country, it'll come up.

"Where you from?"

"I'm from Detroit."

"Yeah, we can tell."

So yeah, we do have a swag about us.

- [Bill] The kind of swag acclaimed collage artist Judy Bowman captures in her work.

A swag she recalls growing up on the East side many years back.

- I show what I see and I got this thing for the swag and a swag and a style and a presence and an attitude that Detroit has.

If you wanna make something outta yourself, you can do it in Detroit.

- [Bill] Here on the Avenue of Fashion, you might get that something from the Bartell family.

- Out of our family, we have about 15 businesses over.

- [Bill] While Times Square has shoes, the Bartell owned Shoebox, a few doors down Williamsburg Row has more.

- This is the shoe that you need in your wardrobe.

You need, absolutely, without a doubt.

- Algernon Bartell's nephew, Aaron, runs the Shoebox.

- This is our most famous popular shoe that we sell.

- [Bill] Highly recommended, the LeBron, because like, it's the best, comes in many colors.

- So this shoe is basically like made for that guy who has everything, but just wants to add a little more.

- I love hats.

I'm never gonna stop wearing them.

- [Bill] Another Bartell outlet, the Mad Hatter on Williamsburg Row too.

- They used to say, oh, hats were for old men.

But I think the young ladies now starting to look at the older men dress.

So they want their boyfriends to start dressing like a mature man.

What's real popular is the hats with the red bottoms.

Those took off.

Young guys love those.

Some women like 'em also.

- [Bill] Outside the Bartell orbit, there's African fabric and fashion.

Moustapha Gaye does the tailoring, importing his fabrics from Western Africa.

- I bring them from everywhere from Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana.

- [Bill] Gaye said his customers come from across the state for his garments for both men and women.

The store's been here since 2008.

- Yeah, but I need this color.

- You need that color.

That's what that color.

African colors, that's his, you know, culture of Africa.

We like colors.

(laughs) Especially our women, they like colors.

They like nice fabrics, nice pieces.

- [Bill] On the other side of Livernois, a new addition to the Avenue of Fashion, a bridal shop.

- My great aunt used to own a lounge in Milwaukee that was called Pink Poodle Lounge.

- [Bill] Raeshawn Bumpners opened her first Pink Poodle Bridal store in Jefferson Chalmers on the East side in 2017, thanks to a grant from Motor City Match, a city program boosting homegrown businesses.

- Pink Poodle, to me, it's more of vintage, you know, it gives that vintage vibe and elegance.

- [Bill] Bumpners got another Motor City Match to start her second store, which opened here this spring.

She worked in the automotive and education industries for two decades before she started Pink Poodle.

- So I knew that it was a strong possibility that I was gonna get laid off of work.

So I started planning a business, but I started planning this business around what I was passionate in.

My story is connecting with young girls and women at the most happiest time in their lives.

We saying yes to the dress?

- Yes!

- we are just grabbing that baton and pushing the Avenue of Fashion forward, with the helps of the businesses that's been here, that's been here a long time.

And we're very appreciated of it.

- If you want a beautiful lion's Honolulu blue mink, there's no place but the Avenue of Fashion on Livernois to come and get it.

Gold lions.

Super Bowl, baby.

- [Bill] C. Granston Bullard, clothing designer and entrepreneur, another highlight on the Avenue.

- There's ready to wear garments that we have in this location, but I would say about at least 60% of the garments here are samples that you order from.

- [Bill] This is, Bullard says, haute couture.

Custom made clothing, the kind more easily seen in magazines.

You can come by his shop, but by appointment only.

- This is a one of a kind sheared beaver and rainbow fox intarsia.

Of course, you know this fur has been dyed.

If you see an animal this color, run for your life.

- [Bill] Bullard trained as a furrier in Chicago many years ago.

- That each one of these has been sewn in.

- He learned this trade in which few are versed in these days.

- All these are hands sewn in.

This garment retails for about 14, about $14,000.

My mother was a dressmaker on Livernois and fashion was always in my household.

My mom made all our clothes.

So I basically was dressed like a prince when I was a kid.

- [Bill] Bullard started out making leather neck ties right out of high school.

Some from Napa lamb and python, sold by the likes of Hughes & Hatcher, a downtown Detroit clothing store gone long ago.

With his furs and other high-end fashion accessories, he's built connections with apparel distributors around the world.

- These garments are engineered and they have the latest in technology.

The latest in technology in tanning, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 or 40 years.

Natural fibers are making a big comeback in leather, lambskin, wool.

They are making comeback with people that wanna buy things that last.

They're starting kind of getting tired of buying disposable clothing.

- [Bill] Bullard's expanding with a bigger showroom next door to be open to walk-ins.

And he's looking to build more Granston stores around the Midwest.

In this online world where so many bricks and mortar stores have been lost, the survival of these stores on the Avenue relies on that old fashioned approach.

- You're a Pink Poodle bride!

- [Bill] Personal service.

- You got an online presence, but that's not my customer.

My customers see, touch, feel.

- [Bill] Still room for redevelopment and growth on the Avenue, the specialty shops, boutiques, restaurants keep coming.

And maybe a multi-use project including residential, amping it up here on Livernois.

- We're looking for big things.

It's getting bigger and better.

- The avenue fastest is it now.

This is it.

We are the ones.