Contributors: September 2015

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Chuck Bennett

Style guru Chuck Bennett has been a trend spotter for a long time. In high school, even after once being sent home for wearing see-through pants, he still managed to snag the best-dressed award for his class. Each year, he leads a team of fashionistas and select Hour Detroit staffers in naming Hour Detroit’s Best Dressed. After sifting through dozens of names throughout the year, they’ve come up with yet again another fine group of metro Detroiters who rise to every occasion in sartorial splendor. Says Bennett: “This year’s list offers a variety of individual styles, including a married couple who perfectly glorify vintage wear, a glamorous national beauty queen, and a cosmetic dentist who even has his doctor’s coats custom tailored.”

Lians Jadan

Lians Jadan, a self-taught photographer with a passion for the visual arts, shot our fashion feature this month. “When first approached about the sports theme for the fashion spread, I immediately thought of using spray paint and not sure what else … But I knew I had to have that,” he says. “Having a wonderful team helped me bring the vision to the pages of Hour.” Jadan’s career began in high fashion, having published editorial work in vogueitalia.com, Graphis, BG, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. In addition to editorials, his advertising work for Alfa Romeo, Harman Kardon, Chrysler, Life Fitness, and Hickey Freeman can be seen globally. He lives in Bloomfield Hills with his wife, Monica, their daughters Lareina and Stella, and their puppy, Lucy.

Jack Lessenberry

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry has seen and interviewed every Detroit mayor since Jerry Cavanagh. “Mike Duggan is the only one I’ve ever seen show up at a Detroit restaurant by himself to meet two people for lunch,” Lessenberry says. “Nor does he, like previous mayors, have a large picture of himself or his family behind his desk. Instead, there’s a classic photograph of the famous civil rights march in Detroit in 1963, showing white and black leaders marching arm in arm for a common goal. He told me he liked that, because it symbolized what he and his administration are trying to do.” Lessenberry interviewed Duggan for our story readable here. In addition to his role as head of the journalism faculty at Wayne State University, he is Michigan Radio’s senior political analyst.

Jenny Risher

Jenny Risher drove all around metro Detroit to capture this year’s Best Dressed winners in some of their favorite places. Then again, she’s no stranger to travel. The Mount Clemens native went coast to coast to take portraits and interview prominent Detroiters for her 2012 book Heart Soul Detroit: Conversations on the Motor City. Risher studied at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies and the Parsons School of Design in New York. Her first photo assignment for Hour Detroit was in 1997, when she was “right out of CCS.” She spent 15 years in the Big Apple — shooting for the likes of Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, DKNY, and Kate Spade — before moving back to metro Detroit.