Driving down Maple Rd in Downtown Birmingham you happen upon Linda Dresner named for its founder. Through these doors you will find fashion heaven for the woman who is creative and has a love for designers who dream, but create relevant apparel. Each season Dresner assembles a streamlined mix of clothing that customers will find wearable, useful and interesting. Her focus is finding items that her customers need and desire. You will find designers, such as Jil Sander, Dries Van Noten, Comme des Garçons, Givenchy and others that will send you into fashion nirvana. The store’s architecture is reminiscent of an art gallery and the clothing is perfectly curated to appeal to the senses.

Saturday, June 13 is the largest annual fundraiser for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and serves as the celebration for the conclusion of Music Director, Leonard Slatkin’s first season. The theme this year is Shakespeare’s, “A Mid Night’s Summer Dream,” so you can expect to see a departure from black-tie and hopefully some festive, but fashionable attire.  Also, featured at this event is superstar mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, who will perform an array of works with Shakespearean connections.

Dresner, who is co-chair for the event along with, Marie Castaing, Kay Cowger and Danielle Karmanos mentioned a special offer for Auto Workers. The DSO is showing support for the automotive industry by offering free seating on a first-come first-serve basis during the concert portion only to those who work for an automaker, a supplier or at a dealership. To reserve your seat for this event please contact the DSO box office at 313-576-5111.

Speaking of support of the arts, Dresner also sits on the board for MOCAD and the College for Creative Studies. When asked what advice she would give to encourage aspiring fashion talent she says “To dream and be relevant to your customers”, and “To ask yourself questions, like why are you doing this?” And lastly she says “Don’t be boring!” She stresses that it takes confidence to create fashions that speak to the customer. Dresner believes that clothing should make you feel good and in this tough economic time they also should make you feel worth it.  She recently closed her location on Park Avenue in NYC, but has not left her well-heeled clientele without her fine-tuned eye, instead of a permanent brick and mortar location she’s been hosting trunk shows selecting pieces of clothing that will appeal to her clientele. In the fashion world, Linda Dresner is one of the leading buyers and if you look at the credits in the fashion editorials of Vogue and Elle you will see that this is the place to shop, but Dresner thinks of herself as an everyday work working girl. But I say, she’s the creator of every girls dream closet.

 -Michel Delon

- Ruth Synowiec, Photography