Michigan Entrepreneurs: Dress shirts designed, produced in metro Detroit

PONTIAC, Mich. – Jeff Schattner was working at Chrysler. He went to a wedding on a very hot day and he was sweating. Why couldn’t dress shirts keep you cool and wick away moisture like athletic shirts?

An idea was born here in metro Detroit.

With no fashion background, Schattner came up with an idea for a dress shirt with cooling panels built in.
He found someone to help him sew the shirt and the panels together on Craigslist.

Most ideas like this are taken to fashion centers like New York and Los Angeles to be shopped around.
Instead, he found the support he needed in Pontiac.

That’s where Karen Buscemi started her own dream of having a cut and sew manufacturing business called “Detroit Sewn.”

Buscemi started with one sewer and one client.

Now she has a room full of sewers and a list of clients, like Schattner, coming to her to make their garments and dreams come true.

Schattner went from that wedding on a hot day to now selling his shirts called “Lawrence Hunt” wear.
www.LHwear.com

Karen is supporting a grown fashion industry here in the area and has designs on creating a garment district in Detroit.
www.detroitsewn.com

Both can show Michiganders how manufacturing dreams into reality can happen right here.


About the Author:

Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.