arts & entertainment

Project Runway: Detroit

A program at the JCC's Janice Charach Gallery brings together
girls from throughout the area to create a fashion show.

Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News.

T

o create a brilliant fashion show
you need:
A) Leading designers, big-
name celebrities and glamorous models.
B) Teens who know almost nothing
about sewing, working with recycled
materials.
In the case of "Project Runway: Detroit:'
the answer is B.
This Sunday at 1 p.m., the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit's Janice Charach Gallery will open
a new exhibit and sale featuring dresses by
teenagers from Metro Detroit, plus an addi-
tional exhibit of more than 400 bracelets
created by artists from around the world
and a collection of new clothing by some of
the area's leading fashion designers.
"I love this exhibit because what I saw
happening to these girls during this class
inspires me said Gallery Director Terri
Stearn. "The friendships made, the fash-
ions created surpassed my wildest dreams
of what would happen. It was magical."
The Heidi Klum/Tim Gunn of "Project
Runway: Detroit" is designer/professor
and former model Dana Keaton.
Keaton's varied professional background
includes business, graphic design and art.
A graduate of and later instructor at the
College for Creative Studies, she had been
"drawing and painting since I could pick
up a pencil," she said.
Her drawings "always had fashion flair,"

and in high school she loved few things
more than taking clothing apart and then
putting it back together to see how it all
worked. These passions, combined with
her "addiction to clothing and shopping','
were behind her decision to start her own
fashion business in Downtown Detroit.
Style is all about innovation and creativ-
ity, and Keaton refuses to follow confines
like popular taste or seasons. When she
opened her business, she decided to pro-
duce outfits "based on how I'm feeling.
One day I may feel like designing formal
wear; another day I'll decide I want to do
casual wear, jeans, T-shirts and ready-to-
wear garments."
Keaton also creates collections for every
season (rather than the traditional spring
and fall), with her latest, "Autumn Rain:'
opening last November.
Six years ago Keaton began working
with teens after a CCS colleague men-
tioned a girl interested in learning about
fashion. At the time Keaton was teaching
Web design and development, plus arts -
and crafts; still, she decided to give it a try.
It was an incredible success.
"Project Runway: Detroit" was an
entirely new experience, though, because
most of the students knew nothing about
designing clothes, and only one had ever
used a sewing machine. The class also
emphasized making artistic clothing from
recycled items, a first for Keaton.
Still, it was love at first stitch.
The girls met throughout the fall and
winter. They sewed, they glued, they added

tea bags and feathers and gemstones to their
clothing. The class itself was a work of art.
"All the girls have artistic talent and
amazing ideas" for their fashions, Keaton
said. Each one learned to sew, each created
an extraordinary outfit, and they were
always eager to try something new
"Dana is top notch:' Steam said. "She is
firm one minute, then giggling with the
girls another. She commands respect with-
out asking for it, and she has made every
one of these girls stronger, just by example."
At the "Project Runway: Detroit" show,
professionals will model the girls' designs
down the runway — an idea that has each
student pretty much over the moon.
"This class is very unique, and it
showed me how to use my personality in
my work and think outside the box:' said
Ciarra Morris of Southfield. "I like how I
saw different styles that people put into
their work."
"The class has helped expand my
boundaries of fashion design by showing
that when done right, almost anything can
be designer:' added Atiyah Anderson of
Detroit. "And I also like how everybody is
supportive of one another in the process
of making clothes."

Designer Dana Keaton saw "amazing
ideas" from all the students.

"When I first signed up for this class,
I really didn't know what it was going to
be. But as soon as I met with [Assistant
Gallery Director] Tina [Abohasira] and
Terri, I knew that I must be a part of it:'
added Jesse Adler of Farmington Hills.
"That was probably one of the best deci-
sions I have ever made said Adler. "It was
a three-hour commitment every Sunday,
but it was worth it. Miss Dana has taught
me so much about design and fashion
while perfecting my sewing skills. Because
of her, I am confident in my garment as
well as my design."
Additional participants were Talya
Applebaum, Kiara Hill, Halley Rosenberg,
Rebecca Traison, Danielle Schostak,
Lexi Smith, Diamond Shockley and Zoe
Yedwab.

Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing

specialist at the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit.

The Janice Charach Gallery hosts the exhibit and sale "Project Runaway: Detroit"
Jan. 22-March 8. The exhibit opens at 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, featuring a fash-
ion show with professional models and music from Joe Cornell Entertainment.
Admittance is free. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 10 a.m.-7
p.m. Thursday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. The gallery, inside the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield, is at 6600 W. Maple Road. (248) 432-5448;
www.jccdet.org or visit the Janice Charach Gallery on Facebook.

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Om,

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

via Last week, the Brit tabloid the Sun

The Dim Sun

411 0 had a shocking item claiming that
Immo singer Katy Perry's father, Keith
Hudson, a California-based evangeli-
cal minister, had said nasty things
about Hollywood Jews and their
riches during a sermon delivered to a
Cleveland church.
The Cleveland Jewish News spoke
to the church's pastor, who said
Hudson's statements were "inappro-
priate" and "awkwardly put." What
Hudson meant was that church mem-
bers "could be as blessed with riches
as many Jews."
The pastor said the Sun put the
comments completely in the wrong
context. Moreover, Hudson issued an
apology after the Sun item appeared.
The Cleveland church has the repu-

34

January 19 2012

tation of being fervently pro-Israel,
and a Cleveland rabbi said "the big
story is the support and the caring
of this particular [Cleveland] pas-
tor [for] the Jewish people, and that
should be told. That should make the
headlines, not this stupidity."
By coincidence, last
week a reader asked
me if Jason Trawick,
singer Britney Spears'
manager and fiance, is
Jewish. He pointed out
that in 2009, humor-
Borowitz
ist Andy Borowitz,
54, writing for the
New Yorker, reposted a recent Sun
item that claimed that Spears was
wearing a Star of David and was
going to convert to Trawick's Jewish
faith. Borowitz used this item as the
preface to a satirical, fictional piece
about Spears' possible conversion.
Long story short: Borowitz didn't

care if the Sun item was true or not
– it was a set-up for his humor.
In 2007, in the midst of a men-
tal breakdown, Spears did wear a
Star of David while briefly dating a
Jewish guy. By 2009, she was no
longer wearing a Star of David but
had a new boyfriend, Jason Trawick.
It's now obvious to me that the Sun
dug out the 2007 story and wedded
it to the new boyfriend; as a result,
Trawick is now described as Jewish
all over the Internet.
My research has shown, however,
that Trawick is not Jewish by faith or
ancestry. His parents are practicing
Methodists.

Might As Well Tour

Major rock band members once could
sit back and collect royalties from
the back sales of their recordings.
Short tours would sometimes happen
to goose the sales of a new CD or

hits collection.
Now things are completely oppo-
site: Internet piracy and single-song
download sales have severely cut
revenue from recordings, and new
music is released to spur fans to buy
sky-high-priced concert tickets.
That's why the
Van Halen rock band,
whose members are all
in their 50s (except for
the son of lead guitar-
ist Eddie Van Haien),
are hitting the road
Roth
next month for a gruel-
ing, months-long tour.
A new single has just been released,
and the band's first CD in 28 years
will appear in February. Singing lead
vocals on the tour, CD and single is
original frontman David Lee Roth,
57.
Van Halen will play the Palace of
Auburn Hills on Monday, Feb. 20. I I