Its About Who's Next to You and Who's Coming Behind You for Rufus Bartell

“Detroit probably had the highest concentration of Black owned retailers anywhere in America.” Rufus Bartell’s story moves from a South Carolina family lineage shaped by the Great Migration to Greater Bethlehem Temple, Drew Middle School, Mackenzie High School, real estate, and more than three decades in Detroit’s garment industry. Fashion started at home, where his father “kind of set the trends,” and every Sunday church meant watching him “bring his Sunday best” alongside a congregation where showing up fly was part of the culture. By Mackenzie, “every day Mackenzie was a fashion show,” and that eye for style eventually became strategy through Fashion Party Weekend—four events connecting Detroiters with independent Black retailers while bringing designers and industry relationships directly into the city. The concept helped models and designers reach national and international opportunities and helped seed the Independent Retail Association. Bartell’s larger lesson reaches beyond clothes: “You have to put cookies back in the cookie jar.” Listen for a Detroit business history about style becoming enterprise, enterprise becoming community infrastructure, and legacy meaning creating opportunity for whoever comes next.

Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different.

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