Misfit items given new life at upcycle exchange

The soul of creativity is in starting with the ordinary and making something extraordinary from it.

Deana Luetkenhaus has been doing it for decades, first as an instructor and supervisor of the costume shop at Southeast Missouri State University's Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts and more recently as the owner D'Tails, an upcycle exchange.

"I strive to be practical, frugal and environmentally conscious," she said in a message to the Southeast Missourian. "I love to teach and be creative, as well as encourage others to do the same ..."

Known as "Dee" to her friends, Luetkenhaus opened D'Tails in September at 14 S. Ellis St. in Cape Girardeau, stocking yarns, felts, fabrics, jewelry, puppets, masks, paints and other art supplies, costumes for sale or rent and cereal boxes fashioned into organizers and hangtags.

A broken table and dresser are turned into shelves, and a forgotten vanity on the side of the road is "funked up" and used for storage.

Deana Luetkenhaus looks over some clothing items inside her Cape Girardeau shop, D’Tails, on Thursday. (Laura Simon)

The business technically has three parts, she explained: the upcycle exchange where post-consumer items that still are usable may be purchased or traded; a classroom/workshop; and custom sewing and couture services.

Luetkenhaus' main activity so far has been applying her costume-making ability to the road production of "Man of La Mancha," the Southeast musical "The Magic Flute," ballerina and matador costumes for a Southern Illinois University -- Carbondale production and wedding dresses and sundresses for the Rhythm Factory School of Performing Arts in Paducah, Ky.

The retail and exchange side of the business, or the "trading post for arts and crafts," has not yet come around as Luetkenhaus hoped, but she thinks it will pick up with time.

Unlike other craft and hobby stores, the upcycle exchange shows customers how to use what is available, repurpose it and give it new life, Luetkenhaus said.

"It's my way of being green," she said. "That's what theater is -- turning a dress into a shirt and making it look like you spent a whole lot more on it than you did."

The St. Joseph, Mo., native earned bachelor's degrees in sociology and theater arts at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C., and a master's degree in costume design and technology at SIU.

"She is in a unique position because if you look over our region, there are not many people with the skills and background she has," said Christy Mershon, assistant director of Extended and Continuing Education at Southeast. Luetkenhaus is scheduled to teach several workshops for the program. "She has always been a hard worker, and I think this is a good time to get into arts and crafts."

Luetkenhaus said she enjoys seeing her work enhance the roles actors and actresses play on stage, but she does not have to see its ultimate application to be satisfied.

"I enjoy the variety and the flexibility of what I do," she said. "One day I am designing and building hats out of wire, canvas and fabric, as well as making necklaces from paper and yarn -- the next day I could be making monster organizers out of empty bottles and scrap wood or teaching a class on how to make votive lanterns from soup cans."

It's the process of creating things Luetkenhaus said she likes, whether it's creations for brides, pageant contestants or operas in cities such as St. Louis and New York.

"Creativity is a different way of looking at things," she said. "What I do is not necessarily art but a practical application to life."

ashedd@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

14 S. Ellis St., Cape Girardeau, MO