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
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