Jhane Barnes

Google, Delta Air Lines, and SONY are just a few of the high-profile corporations that furnish their businesses with carpets, upholstery, and furniture designed by Jhane Barnes. While Jhane is an icon in men's fashion, she is also recognized for her innovation in contract and interior textiles, carpeting, eyewear, and office furniture. Known for her inventiveness, Jhane has become a "go-to" person for almost any industry seeking intelligent, environmentally sensitive, and aesthetically groundbreaking design.

Jhane's career began serendipitously in high school in Maryland. Impressed by clothing she had made for herself and friends, her high school principal asked Jhane to create uniforms for the school's dance band. This experience, coupled with a trip to Europe, reinforced Jhane's interest in fashion. She cast aside plans to study astrophysics at Cal Tech, and enrolled at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Initially forced to study women's wear (men's wear was not offered as a major), Jhane's senior show at FIT featured men's wear. Her line earned rave reviews from DNR, the leading men's fashion trade publication, and she was besieged with offers for her clothing. With a $5,000 loan from her biology professor, Jhane went into production, transforming her apartment into a studio. This was only the start of Jhane's much lauded fashion business.

Successful from the very beginning, Jhane sought an even more hands-on approach to fashion. In 1978 she purchased a loom and began developing the rich fabrics that led to her 1980 COTY award at the age of 25. To this day, Jhane is still the youngest designer ever to receive the COTY award. In 1981, she received this award yet again.

In 1983, Knoll approached Jhane to design a collection of contract textiles. Jhane applied the concepts that succeeded in her menswear designs to develop original upholstery fabrics. Her aesthetic and design process are a true union of science and art. Jhane incorporates fractals and algorithms into her patterns, producing unique, multi-layered fabrics. She uses custom software developed and maintained by noted mathematicians. During Jhane's 15-plus years collaborating with Knoll, she earned several IIDA, Good Design, and "Best of Neocon" awards.

Uncompromising and innovative use of alternative materials, from stretch knits to recycled polyester, earned Jhane a reputation in the contract market. She began making panel fabrics, wall coverings and draperies. Both Bernhardt and Collins and Aikman sought her out to design furniture and modular floor tiles. She also designed several collections for use on her Bernhardt furniture and for COM.

In 2002, Jhane took her textile company private and her upholstery, panel, wall covering and drapery products are now available under the Jhane Barnes Textiles label. Jhane is also poised to launch a new company comprised solely of "green" fabrics for the contract market. Inspired by her environmentally aware approach to her recent home renovations, Jhane is partnering with a leader in chemical engineering to make 100% recycled polyester fabrics that will have a good hand feel, and will themselves be eternally recyclable.

Jhane's concern for the environment is also reflected in her new line of office furniture for Jofco, an Indiana-based manufacturer. "Tahke," this new line, is made from bamboo harvested by hand in China, and is as environmentally sensitive as possible. Even the glue, tack surface, finishing, drawer boxes, and compact fluorescent lights in the overhead take into account their environmental impact.

In another recent project, Jhane applied her signature push-pull technique used in her men's wear line to design wall panels and tabletops for Lumicor. Her designs feature sheets of brightly colored, push-pull, double woven fabric sandwiched between layers of acrylic.

Finally, most recently, Jhane has been invited to design uniforms for the employees of Aria, a casino hotel that will be part of a new City Center complex opening in Las Vegas in 2009. For this project, Jhane will adapt fabrics and styles from her men's line that will flatter City Center employees, while adding sophistication to the hotel and casino environment.

Throughout her career, Jhane has approached design with novelty and ingenuity, introducing new concepts, methods and technologies to men's fashion, interior and contract fabrics, office furniture, and more. As Jhane takes on new projects, she is certain to continue to push the boundaries of design; to redefine the relationship between technology and product development; and to revolutionize the links between product development, aesthetics, and environmental sustainability.