Everything I’ve designed since 1984, when the Macintosh came out, every shirt, sock, tie, carpet, table, chair, has been designed on a Macintosh.

I’ve owned more iPods and iPhones than I can count (I tend to drop things!)

Steve Jobs quite simply made my life better than it would have been otherwise.

Steve Funk's Glass Sculpture

Steve Funk

The gorgeous piece of glass in the picture at left was designed by Steve Funk. He and I met at one of my store appearances in Florida several months ago. Can you believe he designed this piece using the colors in my business card as inspiration? Wow! It never occurred to me that some day, my designs would inspire this type of artwork. Thanks, Steve for sending me this gift. Your talent inspires me!

Here is what the back of my business card looks like. You can really see the link between Steve’s sculpture and my design!

Jhane's Business Card (reverse side)

Check back soon – we will be posting a longer article about Steve and his design process.

The credit for the success of the day goes to having a great group of people involved.

Nathan

Tim

Let’s start with our fantastic models, Tim Ryan and Nathan Kamp.

Not only do these guys look great, they make us look great. They are so easy to work with. Professionals in every sense of the word.

They get in front of the camera, and immediately we get great shots, so we can move right on to the next product.

They are intelligent, they are fun to work with, nice to talk to, aren’t moody, and they eat the food we provide without complaint!

Just a real pleasure to work with.

Most of the time, in fashion work we want a serious, moody, or dramatic look, as illustrated in the first two photos. But it’s hard to keep that up all day, and there are many lighter moments during the shoot (lower image at left).

Nathan (left) and Tim (right)

Tim and Nathan don’t spend all their time modeling. They both run marathons, for example.

Tim ran the New York City Marathon last year, about which he says “I successfully crossed all the bridges and ran through all five boroughs!”, adding “26.2 miles, with 4 blisters, 2 black toes and one sore body!” And while doing that, he was raising money for charity. He plans on running the NYCM again this year, both to beat last year’s 3:48, but also to raise money for the Max Cure Fund at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The fund is dedicated to researching rare pediatric cancers, improving treatments and finding cures that will save children’s lives, a cause Tim became involved in through one of his wife’s friends. In preparation, Tim has been running in races and training all summer. For more information, and to help support this cause, please see Fred’s Team.

Tim is also an actor (he recently recently worked on The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon, and Sex and the City 2). And just to keep himself busy, he also coaches his son’s soccer team.

Nathan, when not modeling or running marathons or playing basketball (which he loves to do), cooks! But this is not the celebrity-chef-at-the-stove-with-the-fast-knife kind of cooking, this is about the relationships among food, friends, and family, and how these elements get woven into an upbeat, positive lifestyle. You can get the full story at his Live To Eat website.

It’s interesting to note that Nathan writes his own scripts for the videos, shoots them, and does all the editing, with just a friend helping out. So in his videos, you are really seeing into his world through his eyes and hands.

Gerardo in Action!

A good photographer makes a photoshoot easy. So please meet Gerardo Somoza, our master of lenses and lighting. He not only snaps the pictures, but he also directs the models for poses and looks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to use the helicopter during our shoot! This photo is from a shot Gerardo did for a client who manufactures helicopters.

A major challenge in photography is the equipment. There is a lot of it, and it gets used hard. When it breaks, everything comes to a halt. And break it will. So it’s helpful that Gerardo brings enough equipment that quick substitutions and repairs keep the day going smoothly.

And a good camera, a steady hand, and a good eye are all important.

Temple Detail

Here’s a detail from the above picture of Nathan and Tim (it’s the temple from Tim’s glasses). This is a blowup from a hand-held camera shot. As you can see, Gerardo has a steady hand on the camera and shutter.

Finally, I’ll just mention that a photoshoot takes a lot of people. The models and the photographer are the “stars” of the show, but a photoshoot doesn’t happen without a photographer’s assistant (several, in our case), stylists, people to select outfits, somebody to run out for food and drinks, run the computers, do makeup—well, it’s a room full of people.

Special thanks go to Jason Wehlage and David Duralde of Kenmark Optical, who were at the photoshoot all day, and were a pleasure to work with. People who are on top of their game, don’t fuss, stay focused, and know how to laugh make the day go along smoothly and pleasantly, and help make sure we get great photos. Thanks, guys!

P. S. As you would expect, Tim and Nathan appear widely in Jhane’s Online Store. Once you get to know them, it’s easy to spot them there, even though we don’t show their faces.

Jhane's Ohio Mathworks Video

If you are a high school teacher, Jhane has a number of the fashion videos available that accompany the Mathworks curriculum. If you would like a copy, please contact jhane@jhanebarnes.com. Thanks!

In the nearly three years that I have worked with Jhane, I have witnessed fashion’s ebbs and flows, and have been impressed with Jhane’s ability to accommodate changing tastes while remaining true to her own aesthetic. My daily responsibilities have shifted, too. Whereas I used to spend a lot of time weaving (on a wonderful, 24-harness AVL compu-dobby loom), I now focus on computer aided design.

More specifically, for the past year, we have been pioneering a new concept in print design: engineered digital prints. Jhane Barnes Digital, set to hit the stores this fall, features a line of clothing printed with millions of colors. In each garment, the print coincides with a specific part of the garment, resulting in a synthesis of color, composition, and form.

Jhane Barnes Digital is fashion’s future. Jhane is changing with the times, and is even ahead of the fashion curve.

As a designer, I am excited to experience these transitions. The only downside is that I am no longer weaving. We are designing fewer and fewer woven dobbies, and are selling two of our looms. I am very sad to see them go! I am grateful to the looms for all they have taught me, and hope their new owners love them as much as we did.

image above: Iviva weaving

Neptune and the Seahorses (Painting by Dr. Robert Elliott)

I love hearing from the men who wear my clothes. Dr. Robert Elliott, who has been wearing my clothes for years, sent me some paintings for Christmas! I was so excited when I opened the package and saw these watercolor sketches based on Da Vinci’s drawings. I just had to call him and thank him.

I ended up telling Dr. Elliott about some of our new designs. He was intrigued by Jhane Barnes Digital, a new line featuring engineered, digitally printed garments. I explained to him that in an engineered print, each aspect of the print coincides with a specific portion of the garment, so that there is a complete synthesis between the fabric and the garment. As a painter, he appreciated the fact that digital printing allows me to design with millions of colors. And then it hit me: “Why don’t I make an engineered digital shirt out of your painting inspired by Da Vinci’s “Neptune and the Sea Horses” drawing?” I asked. He was thrilled by the idea, so I worked with one of my designers, Heidi Bender, to adapt his painting as a print.

In this video, Heidi explains in detail how she transformed the original painting into a shirt.

This shirt is a true collaboration between Heidi, Dr. Elliott, and me. Our design process is as important to me as the final garment. I love when people and ideas cohere into a great finished product, as they do in this shirt, Neptune. Thanks, Dr. Elliott, for allowing me to adapt your painting, and thanks, Heidi, for adding your own painterly touch.

This shirt, like a number of my designs, is an exclusive item. I only produced a limited number. Currently, you can find this item at my online store: Jhane’s online store

A sample of my new Rhedux eyewear

The first is Rhedux. Like my menswear Rhedux collection, this line is environmentally responsible—a perfect match for customers who want to reduce their impact on the earth without sacrificing look and quality.

Rhedux has three new styles. Each uses 30% recycled acetate for the temples, and has an inlay of recycled wood pulp (used in the paper industry).

Who knew wood pulp could look so elegant?

The “demo” lenses (the ones in the frames when you try them on in the store) are made using polylactic acid—a biodegradable plastic from renewable resources such as corn. These lenses break down into carbon and water when incinerated (Whole Foods makes their juice cartons and containers out of the same material). I’m pleased that Kenmark has begun using these lenses in nearly all of their new styles, because millions of those demo lenses are discarded every year, and up to now, they have been made from indestructible plastic (and most still are).

The second new line is called Interchange. Each frame comes with three temples that can be switched out for a different look. There are currently five shapes available, with more in development. These are my new favorites because my doggies always chew on the temples! Now I have spares – and can even color coordinate with my clothes.

Selection of Interchange temples

Each front shape comes in one front color and five different lens shapes (the optician can put any of the five different shaped lenses in the front piece).  Each frame comes with three color coordinated temples that can be switched out for a different look: a translucent color, one of my pattern designs, and one patterned acetate temple that is thinner in profile than the other two.

Patented Interchange hinge

The interchange system uses a patented endpiece/ spring hinge system with a release mechanism that makes it extremely easy to switch out the temples. To see more about my new Rhedux and Interchange line of eyewear, visit my section of the Kenmark Optical website at: jhanebarnes.com/kenmark

Pulse Pen by Livescribe

Recently, I was telling Yamashita, a friend of my husband’s (and the largest supplier of Japanese noodles in the U.S.) about all the notes I took at a recent Tony Robbins business seminar. I said my hand hurt from all the note-taking! He told me I needed a “smart pen.” He went into his bag, pulled his out, and gave it to me! He said it was the best thing ever and just what I needed (that he would get another for himself).

I’ve had it for about a month now and he is right! It’s just like my iPhone – I don’t know how I ever managed without it.

It records audio, but small audio recorders have been around for a long time, so that alone isn’t anything new. What makes this insanely different and great is that as you take notes, the pen links your notes with the audio it recorded as you jotted, so your notes are connected with the audio recording. Later, as you review your notes, the pen will play back the audio that’s tied to each of your notes. In other words, it’s a structured recording that you don’t have to fast forward through, or search! You just point the pen at your notes, and you get the audio snippet that goes with that particular note.

The pen uses special paper that comes in a spiral notebook (that doesn’t cost any more than regular paper). Functions are printed on the bottom of each page: record, pause, and stop. Each page also has a calculator and records the date and time notes were taken. In a meeting, I just hit the record button and start taking notes. Those notes can just be an outline because the pen will sync what its recording with what I’m writing down. When the topic changes, I just write down another heading. After the meeting is over, I just touch the pen tip to any of the headings and the audio that was happening at that time starts playing!

I’ve used it to record important meetings: sales training, line introductions, sensitive license negotiations, and more. You know how you get into a great meeting with a lot of enthusiastic people talking at once and you can’t keep track of all the conversations or possibly write it all down? Well, the great thing about the Pulse Pen is that it can record it all. I plug the ear phones into the pen while I’m on the train going home and replay the meeting and hear all that I missed! As I listen, I’m reminded about all the things that I promised to do – I can pause the recording and take action on the spot.

Of course, it’s not always convenient to take notes. Recently, at a lunch meeting, I was negotiating a very important contract. Taking notes would have been distracting. But, I was talking about percentages and royalty payments – things I needed to document. The room was so noisy, I could barely hear the person who was talking so I was worried about what I might have missed. After the meeting, I plugged the ear phones into the pen, and I heard the conversation even more clearly than when i was there in person! While I was listening to the playback, I jotted down a few notes – and the pen synced the existing audio to the new notes I was taking…hmmmm…how did it do THAT!

The microphone that is built into the pen is great! It works for regular meetings, and even phone conversations! Recently, when discussing those contract negotiations on the phone with my husband, I had my iPhone on speaker. I wanted to make sure I captured all of his thoughts, so I held the pen up close to the phone. When I listened to the playback (and took notes), the sound quality (through the 3D earphones) was even better than the original phone conversation! The 3D earphones work for large conferences.

This incredible pen connects to my computer and loads all the notes and audio into a very simple software application. The notes that have accompanying audio appear in green and the notes with no audio are in black. I can send exported audio to friends and co-workers. I can search electronically through all my pages of notes. The software on my computer keeps every page separate and numbered just like in the real notebook.

I recently had an important strategy meeting for the launch of my Spring 2010 collection. Some of my staff could not attend the meeting. I now have that audio and my notes that I can send to them instead of having to repeat everything that took place at the meeting. They get to hear who said what and EXACTLY in what context – and they can access my notes to get my thoughts.

Did I mention I don’t know how I ever managed without it?

You can learn more about Pulse Pen from their website: http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen

Jhane and Makoto

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I’m taking advantage of some downtime to strategize for the future. I’m looking through designs I’ve created over the last few years that never made it into production. And I’m reflecting on why they dropped by the wayside.  A lot of them are ones that guys would look great in.  So what happened?

My fashions are mostly sold in stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Saks, and smaller specialty stores.  These stores have their own ideas about what will sell, and those ideas influence what they buy from me.  What happens is that my customers only see what stores buy.  I actually design two or three times as many things as make it to market.  So the stores are a huge filter between me and my customers.

Over the years, the stores and the fashion industry have also defined me as someone who makes crazy, mathematically inspired, wildly patterned shirts.  For this reason, stores tend to buy my most special and unique pieces, the ones that stand out for being exciting and different.

I’m not complaining!  It’s fun do design these pieces. I’m never bored!

But I fear that I may have let down the “regular guy” dressing for the “regular day.”

That is, I think there are a lot of guys who like the style and quality of my shirts (and pants, sweaters, socks, and jackets!), but might find some of my more artistic designs too bold for everyday wear.

I like my “special” stuff and would not dream of creating a line without shirts like “Dentrite,” or my new line of digital prints.

I also like the challenge of making that “deceptively simple” shirt.  The one that, at first glance, looks like just a regular shirt – but as you look at it more closely, you see the complex weave or interesting texture or subtle mixing of colors.  I like designs that slowly pull you in.

I promise to never be the designer who puts an emblem on a polo shirt and calls it a day!  But I will certainly make interesting shirts that are both easy to wear and fascinating at the same time.

So, that’s my weekend!  I am literally being a critic of my own work, analyzing how I can create a line of menswear that has a more rounded selection, appealing to a wider group of guys. I always want to design for that artistic guy who likes to be on the fringe, *and* that sophisticated guy who appreciates good design that is more subtle, while still being very special.

When I am designing with Jhane, I am inspired by so many things. My painting background influences me to think about pattern, color, texture, brush strokes, light, space (not “outer space” LOL) and transitions. The analytical part of my brain leads me to think about algorithms, iterations, mathematics and fractals. When these things work in conjunction, it’s magic.

Working for Jhane, everything always goes back to fractals, somehow.

At the end of “Geek Fashion”, I mention how some art critics and mathematicians believe that the action paintings of Jackson Pollock are based on fractals. I was so excited by this tidbit of information that one night, after several pints of Guinness, I told my painter friend about this. He wasn’t as excited as I was… He said he had heard that one before and didn’t really put a lot of stock in that theory.  (Since this conversation did take place at the local pub, you can imagine that this is the family-friendly abbreviated version…) Still excited about my new information, I protested, “No, but you don’t understand!  I spend hours a day everyday at work thinking about painting and art and fractals and algorithms!” (To read more about Jackson Pollock and fractals, Jennifer Ouellette wrote a definitive article for Discover Magazine: Pollock’s Fractals.)

Ok, so I admit, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration to exclaim that I spend hours a day thinking about fractals, but it does seem that somehow everything goes back to fractals. To me, the fact that so many experts could find iterations and patterns in the seemingly random paintings of Jackson Pollock…this validated my whole existence…well, at least for that brief moment….

Fractal broccoflower, also known as Romanesco Broccoli

And sometimes I’m not even thinking about work or art or fashion and fractals pop up….Here’s another example:

Jhane and her team are always looking to try new healthy foods. A recent obsession for me was broccoflower from Trader Joe’s produce section. Broccoflower looks like a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid.  It tastes sort of like cauliflower, but slightly different. I admit, it’s mostly the novelty of a new vegetable that thrills me so much! Thinking about the cloned meat controversy, I wanted to know more about how this unusual vegetable came to be.

I did a little research and found out that what I was buying at TJ’s is literally green cauliflower. And that there is a second type of broccolflower, which is the result of broccoli and cauliflower cross-pollinating (which can happen by natural means). This is also known as Romanesco Broccoli, and has beautiful spirals which follow Fibannaci’s sequence. Each big spiral is made up of lots of little spirals, similar to sea shells. To read more about broccoflower, John Walker wrote a great article called “Fractal Food“.

Besides being mathematical equations, fractals also occur quite frequently in nature. If you would like to know more about this, you can check out an episode of Nova, which Jhane participated in (Chapter 3), which is all about fractals.

-Heidi Bender, Assistant Designer at Jhane Barnes Menswear