Profile Ann Oberschulte: A fashionista returns to her roots

By Nadine Gilmer
Sun contributor
From her Italian brown leather boots to her equally hip jacket, Ann Oberschulte looks every bit the part of the local boutique owner: fashion savvy and comfortably trendy. She walks around The Cottonseed apparel like the fond owner of a small paradise. The racks of earthy garments and displays of artisan jewelry become a maze she walks through, expertly taking inventory of her hand-chosen goods.
Ann inherited The Cottonseed from her parents, Marc and Diana, when she moved back to Leelanau County. After living abroad in cultural meccas across the western world — from Sweden, to Ann Arbor, to Chicago, to Portland — she returned to ease the workload of her parents and their transition into retirement. They have finally hung their hats after selling the Totem Shop to Doug Thomas and Richard and Stacy Roberts, who also own the Harbor House in Leland. “I grew up on my mom’s back in retail,” Ann says of her childhood spent in the Totem Shop, The Cottonseed and the Sleeping Bear in Empire, which her parents also owned. (The Sleeping Bear recently took the name Bear North and kicked off its new era with an energetic parking lot square dance as part of the 2007 Empire Asparagus Festival.)

When it came time for college, Ann chose the University of Michigan for a degree in Arts and Ideas in the Humanities. After graduating from U-M she moved to Portland, principally to study photography, and then to Chicago where she worked as a traveling saleswoman in a fashion industry apparel showroom for three years, traveling all over the Midwest and occasionally to New York. “In my travels I got to see all of these boutiques and I realized that my parents had one of the best retail environments I had ever seen,” Ann remembers. “It had a lot of potential.” So after years of moving from big city to big city she returned to Leelanau County. “I would always come back for visits, (but I tired of) having to leave my friends and return to Chicago.”
So this hometown girl returned to her roots for good after time had worn away youth’s impatience. “I had my experiences and learned what’s out there,” says Ann. “But this is my home. There’s no better home than with your family and with the people you grew up with.” In doing so she bucks the trend of many upwardly mobile local young people who move away to the glitz of this country’s cities and suburbs, and usually only return for visits.
Early last year Ann purchased and remodeled a delightful home near the New Neighborhood in Empire, where she now hangs her hat. Like the Cottonseed, her home is also a fashionista’s paradise. What was her inspiration? Imagine a Parisian settling in California, she says. But most important of all, her northern Michigan roots are outside and all around.