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Print magazines may seem like yesterday’s news, but Aleiya Olu believes their time never passed. That’s why she opened on Grand River Avenue in Detroit, a magazine store where her passions for marketing, fashion, magazines, and the arts intersect.

“We want to drive home that magazines, print, and periodicals are a really important media,” the Detroit native says. “Print is really gold, because a magazine or a piece of print media is like a time capsule. We can go back to an old newspaper, an old magazine, and flip through and see what exactly was happening in that period.”

Olu opened the shop a year ago, on Aug. 17, in a cozy room attached to the office of her PR firm, . She co-owns the firm with her husband, Amani, who founded the arts-focused marketing agency in New York City in 2012. The couple have since set up shop in Core City, a neighborhood of particular sentimental value to Olu.

“I’m from the west side, and I grew up just down Grand River in Rosedale Park. Grand River was just such an important thoroughfare for me,” she says. “It was the fastest way to get downtown, which was always exciting for me growing up.”

Olu & Company has worked with big fashion clients, such as Bottega Veneta and Gucci, as well as Michigan Central and the . “The agency was founded to help artists better tell their stories to the media, and that turned into helping galleries and museums, and then nonprofits and foundations, and then we expanded to design and architecture,” Olu says.

Olu’s passion for fashion and magazines is reflected in Periodicals. “A magazine itself is like a whole creative idea, so the editor of a magazine is almost like the creative director of a fashion house. Each issue is a very well-produced, specific point of view on a subject,” she says. “I think there’s definitely value in that.”

Her love for magazines began when she was a teenager, as she became entranced by the well-designed layouts of Suede magazine. It was at this time that she began to look up to political and social justice writers, as well as Detroit fashion designer Tracy Reese.

“When I was really young, magazines informed so much of my trajectory, my point of view; it was a way for me to sort of have a portal outside of my lived reality,” she says. “It was a way for me to travel without traveling.”

Periodicals is Olu & Company’s way of supporting the print industry. “People have always said, ‘Print is dead.’ ‘Print is dying.’ ‘What’s going to happen to print?’ But I think there are some people who really believe print’s not going to die because there are so many people who are passionate about it,” she says.

In addition to print media, Periodicals sells items designed to “reenergize the creative mind,” including candles, fragrances, skin care products, and writing tools. She also supports the local fashion scene by hosting a monthlong residency program for emerging designers. Olu lets them set up shop in a large, high-ceilinged back room that connects to a tranquil courtyard. “We really wanted to show off the architecture of the space and give people access to it,” she says.

With the emergence of many young, innovative designers, Olu is hopeful for the future of Detroit’s fashion scene. “Detroit as a whole is moving in a direction where we’re garnering more attention,” Olu says. “People in the fashion industry can’t say they haven’t heard of anything going on in Detroit, because we’ve definitely been making press.”

This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of ������ Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of ������ Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our will be available on Aug. 6.