DETROIT (WXYZ) — A downtown Detroit restaurant is getting a fashion makeover thanks to a unique collaboration with the country's only historically Black college and university for design.
Watch Evan Sery's video report:
Fixins Soul Restaurant, owned by 3-time NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson, has partnered with the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design to have students create new staff uniforms every 90 days.
Jordan Dixon, a PLC student, designed the first set of uniforms, which pay tribute to Detroit's east and west sides. The shirts feature local icons, including a nod to J Dilla on the east side design and a tiger on the west side version.
"It's honestly astonishing to be able to do this," Dixon said. "I wanted to create basically east side and west side unity."
Dixon spent 2 weeks creating the designs, which showcase what he sees as the best of both sides of the city.
"Detroit has changed so much, and it's so beautiful, you know, like no matter what," Dixon said.
The collaboration began with a conversation between Johnson and PLC President Dr. D'Wayne Edwards about creating a simple t-shirt design.
"We gonna do a t-shirt collaboration, I'm like, okay, cool, we gonna make a fixins shirt? Yeah, we're gonna make a fixins shirt," Johnson said.
Johnson, who has built partnerships throughout Detroit with churches, school districts, the YMCA, fraternities and sororities, Shinola, and Bedrock, says this collaboration with PLC represents another way to invest in community talent.
"We have partnered with churches and school districts, YMCA, fraternities and sororities, Shinola, Bedrock, tons of incredible partnerships with that community love, but the one we're talking about today is PLC," Johnson said.
Dr. Edwards, a designer with 30 years of experience, including 10 years as design director for Nike's Jordan Brand, praised Dixon's work.
"Oh, it's very cool, man, exactly what I expected," Edwards said. "This is another way for us to invest in the community by discovering talent born and raised here."
The rotating design program will give a new PLC student the opportunity to be featured as the uniform designer every 3 months. Edwards says the approach reflects the school's teaching philosophy.
"Good design, you don't recognize all of it at first glance, you need to actually look deeper, and discover more and more things that you missed, and I knew that's how he design, that's how we teach," Edwards said. "I knew by him going first, it would set the tone for the storytelling we want."
Staff at the downtown restaurant will receive 2 shirts to wear as part of their uniforms - one representing the city's east side and another representing the west side.
For more on Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, watch our previous reports:
VIDEO: Examining the future of the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design
VIDEO: Re-opening Michigan's only HBCU: What Pensole Lewis means for Detroit
VIDEO: Detroit's HBCU Pensole Lewis college has 'huge plans' for the future
————————————————
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
