ZANA SMITH : SPECTACLES
Four Decades of Style, Culture, and Detroit Soul
In 1984, when downtown Detroit was quiet enough that you could “roll a bowling ball and not hit a thing,” Zana Smith opened the doors to a new kind of boutique. Her shop, Spectacles, was never meant to be just a retail space — it became a living room for Detroit culture, a meeting ground for music, fashion, and community.
Zana had already been hustling long before downtown’s comeback. She’d reopened Junior’s Jazz Room on Dexter and Richton and sold eyewear and fashion pieces from her Ferris State dorm room. Entrepreneurship ran in her blood — her grandmother owned a boutique on Oakland Avenue, and her mother ran a moving company called Porter’s Moving and Express. When a downtown storefront became available, Zana stepped in, filling an empty block with rhythm, conversation, and color.
She named the shop Spectacles after her early work outfitting local bands who, as she says with a smile, “made spectacles of themselves.” The store soon became a reflection of that same spirit — bold, expressive, unapologetically Black. She stocked eyewear, clothing, vinyl, books, and local brands. Her curation followed a simple rule: “The blacker it is, the better.”
Through the decades, Spectacles has been a constant amid the city’s changing landscape. The store carried 40 Acres & A Mule merchandise before Spike Lee even opened his own retail shop, and it served as a bridge between Detroit’s fashion scene and its house-music underground. Zana promoted parties, hosted DJs and poets, and gave young creatives a platform long before pop-ups were a trend. “People have to get dressed up for the parties,” she laughs. “It all goes hand in hand.”
When asked how she’s kept Spectacles alive through recessions, cultural shifts, and the endless churn of downtown redevelopment, her answer is simple: “Keep good hours. Open on time. Be honest.” For Zana, consistency is a spiritual practice. She’s seen waves of developers make promises that never came to fruition, but she’s stayed grounded in relationships — the real currency of Detroit. “You have to cultivate them,” she says. “That’s what keeps a business alive.”
Her impact ripples far beyond her storefront. Promoters, DJs, designers, and entrepreneurs across the city call her a mentor and an influence. Adriel Thornton, founder of Family and MODEM, calls her a guiding force in Detroit’s cultural ecosystem. Her goddaughter describes her as generous, maternal, and always opening doors for others.
Now, more than forty years later, Zana calls this her “winding-down chapter,” but to anyone who’s ever walked through her door, she remains the city’s quiet godmother of retail and culture — part archivist, part storyteller, and fully Detroit.
Because if you’ve ever walked into a shop and left with more than a bag — if you left with connection, history, and a piece of the city’s soul —
Thank Detroit for That.
Thank Detroit for That is a collective photography and storytelling project celebrating the people this city has raised — builders, dreamers, educators, artists, and everyday legends rooted in Detroit’s rich soil.