Zana Smith is a pioneer in every sense of the word.
She’s owned and operated her Spectacles store in Detroit for decades as a Black woman. Her shop has been a staple for culture seekers, shifters and makers in the area, and she’s always understood its impact beyond the clothes sold on its racks. For her contributions to the community, she will be honored at the May 29 Detroit Diaspora Day Party Is King at The Irwin House from noon to 10 p.m.
Recently, Smith discussed what the honor means to her.
How does it feel to be honored by your city?
Well, I’m a native Detroiter and it feels great to know everything we’ve been doing here in Detroit since the early 70s has been well received.
At Spectacles, you offer a plethora of gear. What brands do you carry?
We’ve been here since 1984 and we carry a lot of merchandise you can’t find elsewhere. What put the store on the map was when we carried the Spike Lee line back in the ’90s. Even before Spike Lee had a store, we had his gear in the shop, so we’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had a lot of good brands we’ve represented, like Triple Soul, P & B and a lot of these brands were exclusive to our store.
What can the exclusive merchandise from Spectacles do for someone’s confidence?
When you talk about confidence, whenever you buy something from Spectacles, you know you’re going to be asked where [did] you get that? Those are the kind of items we try to carry, items that will get that kind of reaction we named. The store Spectacles, because we initially were selling to entertainers who got on stage and make spectacles of themselves. We started with expensive eyewear and ended up doing sportswear, then hoodies and a lot of the accessories for men. We find that men have been wearing a lot more accessories now, so we have quite a few accessories like jewelry and bracelets.
Why is it important for Black people to continue to acknowledge and celebrate their roots?
With the Detroit diasporas, it’s an opportunity for us to gather together and that takes you on the musical journey. Spectacles has always been associated with the DJ culture in the city, this is doing the movement weekend, so a lot of the DJs have either worked here at Spectacles or have played for Spectacles. Back in the early ’80s, I was a party promoter and our DJ was King Collier. He was very popular here. What I like to see is giving parties at the downstairs pub and the store being associated with the DJ culture. So I think the reason why I was chosen is because of the longevity of the store — we’ve been here 39 years.
