May 14, 2007

Funky Ferndale; Cool vibe draws shop owners to Nine MileBy Greg TaskerDetNews.com

Ferndale — Fashionable. Fabulous. Funky.

These days, fashionable again applies to Ferndale. With eclectic shops and boutiques selling everything from high-end designer apparel to vintage clothing, Ferndale’s thriving business district at Woodward and Nine Mile is certainly avant-garde.

Fabulous? That works, too. Where else in Metro Detroit will you find a bank that devotes more floor space to the works of local artists than, well, banking? Or a store like Beautiful Home, where owner Violeine Oliver puts her contemporary touch on mahogany and teak furniture made in Africa?

And funky? Well, these days that’s the F-word most commonly used to describe Ferndale, which has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past decade. Underscoring the funkiness are places like Boogie Fever on Woodward, a nightclub that pays homage to the music of the 1970s and 1980s, and American Pop, a small shop selling nostalgia to baby boomers.

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