You auto know Detroit

How Hollie prepped for the trip: this was in her record-player as we picked her up in Hamilton

Detroit Detroit DETROIT! Katie and I went on a little road trip two week-ends ago with our great pals and now partners in crime & business, Hollie and Jane from White Elephant. The decision to head to the Motor City came about after the success of our last joint vintage dress sale - our sizable collection of vintage dresses from the 40s, 50s and 60s was starting to get slim, and since we've kindof set the bar so high with our past sales we realized we would have to actually hit the road this time (American Pickers' style!) to make sure we had a really great selection of cream of the crop dresses for our upcoming Fall sales (mark your calenders now: it's happening Saturday October 27th at our Dalhousie location!) 

Good morning roomies

We choose Detroit & surrounding towns cos we had a hunch it could be a thrifting goldmine...seeing as it's a formerly booming town now fallen upon some hard times. But really I think we just wanted an excuse to go road-tripping with our friends and the chance to call it a business trip in a best case scenario, if all panned out as we hoped. Plus we all had a shared fascination with Detroit - the stories we'd heard about young people and new businesses taking over some of the abandoned buildings and trying to make things happen again...old buildings + post-apocalyptic eeeriness + potential thrifting dreams coming true + young people making things happen + pals = um, hello?? We're there. Or rather, I should say Detroit WHUT!

The first night we stayed outside Detroit proper, in a suburb called Birmingham, since it was close to a couple flea markets we wanted to hit up bright and early in the morning. Jane DID not book us the "pizza party" hotel room oddly enough (for an extra 50$ the hotel will have a hot pizza ready for you at check-in. Random but kinda awesome right?) And lucky for us, there was an estate sale also happening nearabouts, so we excitedly made our way there. So excitedly that Katie had barely stopped the car and we were already barreling out of the car to get to the good stuff first. We didn't leave with much, except for a lifetime's worth of roller-skating memorabilia! Can't wait to use this in the shop somehow one day soon.

I stole this picture from White Elephant's blog - you should go and check out their post on the trip! As always they've got great pictures.

Then we were off to Detroit! We stayed at the unbelievable Honor & Folly in the historic Corktown neighbourhood. I honestly miss this place and wish I really lived here. It was perfect, and homey, and had beautiful dishes in the cupboards we used to eat our delicious take-out BBQ from Slow's. It truly felt like a home away from home.

Beautiful painted brick wall on the side of the building where Honor & Folly and Slow's are

It's hard to believe it, but most of the pictures below were taken just across the street from where we were staying. Detroit's landscape truly is haunting. Abandoned/burnt down buildings are EVERYWHERE. And though there is a sort of beauty to the decay, and there is a bubbling energy to the city of renewal, at times it was hard not to feel sad and hopeless about it all.

But Detroit just has too much good for it to not rise up from the ashes. And we already can't wait to go back, there's so much more we want to see and do! Roller-skating! Speakeasy! You can do it all in Detroit.

*A funny aside: crossing the border on the way home - with no booze, no cigarettes, and no scars - just a car full of smiling girls with vintage dresses, the border guard looked at Katie and I and said "Ottawa's Thelma and Louise eh?" * BEST thing I've ever heard someone in a position of authority call us.