Designer Janelle Abbott presents a bright, nostalgic collection that draws from the past to reckon with the unknowability of the future
JRAT’s Spring/Summer fashion week presentation was held in at kaleidoscope, a bright, airy Bushwick studio where gentle white noise from an old television murmured through a speaker, akin to the sound you might hear from your couch while watching ’90s cartoons as a child. In fact, this nostalgia for being home sick from school – or, as designer Janelle Abbott puts it, the fond memories of miserable moments – is what inspired this delightfully eclectic collection, appropriately named HOMESICK, especially as we often yearn for the simpler days of childhood.
Janelle, who grew up in the fashion industry and understands the labor of love that is making garments, is deeply committed to upcycling, sustainability, handcraft, and zero-waste design methodology. HOMESICK is intentionally curated and crafted from found, reclaimed, and deadstock materials.
Similar to how memories are collected and fragmented, this collection features fabrics that are ripped up, melded together, and reimagined in unique forms and pillowy silhouettes. Woven tweed-like jackets, ruffle collars, and rainbow-beaded hats adorned the cast of models, who slowly meandered down the runway with mussed-up bedhead hair as if just awakening from a dream. With a collection that is made for everyone—and every body—Janelle creates solace through the manifestation of nostalgia.
We wanted to learn more so asked Janelle a few questions.
Can you share a specific childhood memory that influenced this collection?
In some ways, this collection is a fantasy, because I was homeschool through 9th grade, so my experience of “staying home sick from school” meant something different to me than my friends who went to public school. I could watch The Price is Right whenever I wanted! It was my favorite daytime TV shows in part because I loved grocery shopping with me mom, and there was something exciting to see this “mundane” activity amplified and celebrated with so much razzle dazzle. I did go to public school in high school, however, and got mono at one point. I remember a friend coming to visit me after school and I woke up to find she had left hours previously. I fell asleep while she was there without realizing it! But I so appreciated the care and attention my friend showed by visiting me while I was ill. That meant a lot.
What role does nostalgia play in your creative process?
I use clothing and textile that have lived previous lives—they’ve reached the end of usefulness and now they require an intervention! So there’s a sense of nostalgia wrapped up in the materiality itself. By salvaging, reconfiguring, and recontextualizing these things, I affirm that the past is still present because of the remnants and reverberations that the past will always echo forward. I choose to radical acceptance that devoid of need, these materials still exist. The past that cannot be undone, and thus the present is an opportunity to find resolution to points of contention, disappointment, or despair (and hopefully making different choices going forward, i.e. divesting from fast fashion indefinitely).
There’s this painful longing for times when “things made sense”, like times in childhood that allowed for an unabashed exploration and an excitement for life that (at lease for me) got crushed in my early 20s. Often the joy of those times exist only in hindsight, because like staying homesick from school, moving through the illness is uncomfortable, but the memories can be fond of having received a reprieve from normalcy and extra care and attention from loved ones.
How do you hope people will feel when they see or wear pieces from this collection?
I want people to have authentic reactions to my work, and often I cannot anticipate how my pieces will make people think or feel. It usually proves true that the item/look I love is forgettable to others, and the item/look I’m disappointed in is EVERYONES favorite. I worked with two stylists for the catwalk and they put together several looks I would’ve never conceived—they also styled pieces in innovative ways, which felt was very true to life. That’s how I wear my clothes too! Tops as bottoms, visa versa, things wrapped and tied, neck pieces as head pieces and so on. So I think I am better off relinquishing the work to others, so that they can play. The joy is mutual at the possibilities of what I’ve created. It also feels more authentic to let loose my creative vision because I want people to incorporate these pieces into their existing wardrobes. I’m not going to be there to dictate which side of the garment is “front” or what bottom they should style a JRAT top with. During photoshoots, I will even take chances and tell models to style themselves because why not? I already got 100% of my say in making the piece. I love to see what others than do with them. So maybe, ultimately, I hope people will feel free to play and have fun with my work. I hope people, no matter who they are, will see that they’re invited to this party.
What does the future of JRAT look like?
I want to continue to make as much clothing as I possibly can from all of the discarded and reclaimed materials that come my way—the supply is never ending! In this way, I see myself as a fire fighter against fast fashion. Scaling JRAT is difficult because it will always be one of a kind clothing made by my hands, so I am working towards establishing a second line called Rabbott Wear which will be limited edition zero waste patterned pieces from deadstock textiles, made to order in any size. My intention then is to blend the two lines in my presentation and offer more versatility and dexterity to what I am able to make and who I am able to fit, while sticking within my ethical and methodological commitments because for me that is paramount to my practice.
– Sara Marsh
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