KEVIN ZHENG/DAILY

The Getup Vintage offers apparel from many decades.

Getup and find a costume

State Street vintage store is the perfect haunt for Halloween

Walking into The Getup Vin-

tage was like shifting through 
all the hustle-and-bustle of State 
Street and finding an unexpected 
diamond; exposed brick walls 
adorned with various pieces of 
art encased a homey space, with 
bright lines of the racks of vibrant 
clothing shining out like a beacon. 
The Getup Vintage is a beautiful 
cacophony of timeless designs. 
Like the clothing it sells, this shop 
is both modern and vintage: well-
worn, framed paintings stand next 
to exquisitely vibrant hand-paint-
ed designs on the walls which, 

in turn, stand next to a chic and 
sophisticated sitting area. Like the 
clothing it sells, this shop has his-
tory.

“Initially, this store was started 

12 years ago. A woman named 
Kelly ran it for the first ten years… 
it started upstairs, actually, on the 
third floor, in the attic space. About 
six years ago, she fought with the 
landlord and got it moved down-
stairs,” Kaylan Mitchell said.

Mitchell, along with her part-

ner Lindsey Leyland, are the cur-
rent owners of The Getup Vintage. 
They had both been employees 
working for the previous owner 
when, a couple years ago, opportu-
nity struck.

“She 
[the 
previous 
owner] 

decided she wanted to retire about 
two, three years ago. Myself and 
my partner Lindsey were both 
working here and she was just like, 
‘You gals wanna keep it going?’ and 
we were like ‘Yeah, duh!’”

Mitchell’s excitement and pas-

sion for the store comes through 
in her words, in her bright smile 
as she explains the store’s history 
and especially through the actual 
store itself; even though the lay-
out is an eclectic conglomeration 
of clothing pieces with varying 
patterns, colors and styles, every 
object is placed with care and pur-
posefulness. Different groups of 
clothing are meticulously labeled 
in curling font while various pieces 
of jewelry arranged in a pleasing 
composition bedazzle the register. 
However, the arrangement of the 
store wasn’t always as it is today. 
When management traded hands 
to Mitchell and Leyland, they 
decided a complete makeover was 
in order.

“Since we took it over, we reno-

vated,” Mitchell said, “we kind of 
put our own spin on things because 
it was a totally different vibe.”

Before Mitchell and Leyland 

took over, The Getup Vintage was 
more centered on antiques that 
you had to dig for in order to find 
what you desired. While quarrying 
for buried treasure can be enter-
taining, Mitchell decided she had 
a new vision for the shop: one that 
focused on a perfect melding of 
past and present.

“I wanted to have clothing that 

people like you and me would want 
to wear,” Mitchell said, “things 
from the past that are trendy and 
affordable … a lot of designers take 
directly from vintage clothing. It’s 
like, okay, what colors are hot this 
season? Oh, that’s all 1970s.”

Her vision is apparent: through-

out the store, retro jeans hold their 
own next to racks of beautiful vin-
tage swing dresses while shoes of 

SHIMA SADIGHIYANI

Daily Arts Writer

all different time periods look on 
from the sidelines. The only thing 
these varying styles and articles 
of clothing have in common is that 
they all are something you could 
wear today, casually walking down 
the street.

Mitchell 
and 
Leyland 
also 

decided to physically change the 
arrangement of the store itself 
once they achieved ownership.

As Mitchell said, “There’s noth-

ing left from before (except the 
jewelry case).” 

It’s a beautiful room; one that 

radiates 
cordiality, 
openness 

and comfort through the layer of 
authenticity that covers the entire 
store like a warm blanket. The 
flowery designs etched over parts 
of the walls were all done by hand, 
courtesy of Mitchell and Leyland, 
and the arrangement of the vari-
ous enduringly eccentric decora-
tions seemed to have a great deal 
of thought behind the placements. 
In fact, it is this persistent sense of 

pride and enthusiasm that causes 
the store to feel so welcoming; you 
may not know exactly what you 
want to buy, but as soon as you step 
into The Getup Vintage you know 
you’re going to find it there.

Which is what makes the shop 

so perfect for Halloween costume 
shopping.

“Either you can come in with 

an idea, ‘Oh, I want to be Daphne 
from Scooby Doo,’ and we can 
pull pieces that have that kind of a 
vibe. Or what’s kind of also really 
fun is just to come in here and 
look at what we have and see what 
inspires you,” Mitchell said.

The best part about costume 

shopping at The Getup Vintage is 
the fact that you are able to rework 
pieces of your costume into daily 
wardrobe essentials instead of 
shoving them to the back of the 
closet to collect dust; the pieces 
that this store offers are extremely 
versatile. How could they not be? 
The foundation of The Getup Vin-

tage is built on recycling the old 
into the new and on reusing past 
favorites for current ensembles.

The store does get busier around 

Halloween every single year, with 
people rushing in the last few days 
before the 31st to try and find the 
perfect costume. Rather than let 
the sudden influx of customers 
under a time-crunch stress her out, 
Mitchell seems to have fun with it.

“It’s [helping people out with 

their costumes] one of my favor-
ite things because it’s like a hunt,” 
Mitchell said.

She narrated a story of a man 

who wanted to embody Prince for 
Halloween. A monumental task 
that ended in a success, Mitchell 
found him a purple jumpsuit with 
leather fringe that came straight 
out of the 1980s. It was a classic 
Halloween tale: a costume fit for a 
prince, picked with care from the 
depths of a cozy vintage clothing 
store that treats its customers a lot 
like family. 

With autumn swiftly descend-

ing and the hibernation of nature 
at hand, new and exciting music 
is awakening at the 
annual 
Edgefest 

Festival, hosted by 
Kerrytown Concert 
House. The avant-
garde jazz festival, 
now in its 20th year, 
kicked off on Tues-
day and will contin-
ue to run through 
Saturday, showcas-
ing diverse and dar-
ing 
performances 

by a variety of art-
ists, many of them 
University of Michigan alumni and 
faculty, including Stephen Rush.

“It’s so fun that it’s damn goofy,” 

Rush said on the composition he 
will be performing at Edgefest 
with the University of Michigan 
Jazz Ensemble. “I’m okay with 
that; it’d be better for the audience 
to have fun than be miserable, 
right?”

Rush, who is a professor of 

performance arts technology at 
the School of Music, Theatre & 
Dance, has been a participant in 
Edgefest throughout much of its 
existence.

“I’ve been playing with Edge-

fest for — oh, man, for a long 
time, for a long, long time,” Rush 
said. “It may be 20 years ago I put 
together a version of Miles Davis’s 
“Bitches Brew” with one of my 
classes, actually.”

Rush 
has 
additionally 

performed at Edgefest throughout 
the years with other groups 
and in other styles, including a 
performance with his New York 
based trio Yuganaut with Roscoe 
Mitchell, and a performance 
of avant-garde composer John 
Cage’s “Sonatas and Interludes” 
for prepared piano.

The piece of Rush’s being 

performed Saturday, which was 
commissioned by Edgefest a few 
years ago, is called “Jazz Piano 
Concerto with Graphic Score 
Interludes.” Like much of his work, 
it is eclectic and adventurous. 
The piece includes sections in 
styles taken from throughout the 
history of jazz and classical music, 
and dispersed throughout are 
graphic score interludes, sections 
of music that are improvised off 
of paintings created by Rush. The 
entire composition is a unique 
mishmash of disparate threads.

“My aesthetic, I think, probably 

is mostly informed by Hitchcock, 
because Hitchcock’s movies … are 
really sexy, and they’re always a 
little bit funny, and they’re defi-
nitely creepy,” Rush said. “And I 

just think, ‘Man, that’s a good rea-
son to pay attention,’ you know? 
It’s not this bullshit where back-in-
the-day you go into Blockbusters, 
and you go ‘well there’s a comedy, 
well there’s a romantic, now this is 

a horror film,’ you 
know, 
everything 

is really compart-
mentalized, 
and 

you know exactly 
what it is … and I 
think 
that’s 
just 

such a drag, man … 
it’s like if you look at 
Matisse’s paintings, 
he has this dark, 
weird, violence, and 
then cute and pret-
ty and flowers, and 
you just go ‘what?’ ”

Rush also addressed many of 

the preconceived notions he finds 
people hold about music, saying 
he attempts to dismantle them 
through his work.

“[My main aim with my music 

is] not necessarily self-expression, 
which is what people seem to think 
music is about,” Rush said.

“You know, different pieces 

for me have different functions 
— there’s some pieces that actu-
ally do try to express things, but 
I think, just looking at this piece 
specifically, it’s kind of a peda-
gogical gift, because I wanted the 
students to be able to play music in 
all these different styles. I just love 
the breadth and scope of jazz. And 
also it’s a statement against people 
who don’t dig that.

“There are so many folks who 

just go, ‘Oh, well, I’m going to be 
responsible for the music between 
1955 and 1963,’ you know, and I just 
think that’s pathetic. In order to be 
a complete jazz musician, I think, 
you should at least have a strong 
familiarity of the whole breadth 
and scope of it.”

Along those same lines of 

broadening interests, Rush works 
in many different mediums and 
styles, exploring new possibilities 
and constantly reinventing the 
sort of work he does.

“I’m an artist who chooses 

artistic outcomes based on proj-
ects, not so much on my own 
identity as an artist … what I’m 
more interested in is the process 
of what’s happening when I make 
stuff, and being really honest 
about that. I’m interested in being 
honest about where I want to be 
with that particular artwork.”

For “Jazz Piano Concerto with 

Graphic Score Interludes,” Rush 
said he ultimately created a piece 
entirely distinct from his initial 
ideas.

“The pieces ended up being very 

different from what I’d planned 
on,” Rush said. “And that’s the 
funnest part about making things, 

right? You kind of sequester your-
self into a room and say ‘I’m going 
to make something,’ and you come 
out and go, ‘Wow, I didn’t think 
that was going to happen!’ ”

Rush’s process is one of constant 

exploration, following his instincts 
and refusing to be bound by any 
sort of careerism or preconceived 
notions of what music is about or 
for.

“In the old days you’d say ‘wher-

ever the spirit leads,’ … that’s the 
idea of it, letting yourself go down 
the weird path, the extremely 
weird path.”

As a professor, Rush also instills 

this outlook in his students. For 
example, early next month one of 
his classes will be constructing a 
piece to be performed on the pond 
near the Earl V. Moore building.

“This year is crazy, they’ve 

got a floating greenhouse on the 
pond, it’s just really out there,” 
Rush said. “And then somebody 
like risk management says ‘Well, 
we’re going to have to ask you what 
you’re going to do out there,’ and 
it’s like, ‘I don’t know, dude. It’s not 
done yet, man, how do I know?’ ”

Rush’s outlook as a composer and 

artist goes beyond his exploration, 
and is informed by a desire to touch 
people meaningfully.

“I’ve got an Air India barf bag 

in my studio, and it says … ‘if 40 
percent of the audience needs this, 
then it’s your problem,’ ” Rush said.

“And what I propose to do when 

I write a piece of music or when I 
perform is I really hope that people 
are engaged on some kind of deep 
level. I’m not trying to prove 
anything, I’m not trying to make 
any major artistic statement, nor 
am I in any way trying to put myself 
in this position of superiority where 
they need to struggle to get what 
I’m getting. Not that everything 
I do is ridiculously accessible — 
that’d be the last that I’d ever say … 
I definitely like it when audiences 
are confused and then they figure 
stuff out. I do get really worried if 
they don’t figure it out, you know, 
like if something’s really funny and 
I don’t hear audiences laughing, 
you know, a little kitten inside me 
dies, man. I just go ‘damn, what 
did I do wrong?’ ”

Rush’s hope is that, despite 

the unorthodox nature of his 
work, that audiences will after 
a short while understand what 
he is trying to say and receive 
something personally important 
from the experience.

“There’s some things that I do, 

definitely, that I think are initially 
extremely confounding and off-
putting,” Rush said. “And yet, I’m 
hoping that I hit that sweet spot 
where … the audiences goes, ‘Ah, 
okay, alright,’ and they don’t feel 
like I’m being mean to them.”

DAYTON HARE
Daily Arts Writer

Steve Rush preps for another Edgefest

Expect an unorthodox performance from the explorative jazz artist

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Stephen Rush 

at Edgefest

Saturday at 8:30 

p.m.

St. Andrew’s 

Episcopal Church

$15 General 

Admission, $5 

Students

STORE PROFILE

4B — Thursday, October 27, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

