General Information
1. Hi, Jake! could you start by telling me a bit about yourself?
a. I would have to say I am just your everyday type of creative guy who happens to be a fashion designer. I live and work in San Francisco which is a big part of what makes me who I am even if one doesn’t necessarily think of San Francisco and fashion in the same way that one thinks of NYC and fashion. The city is home to me – it is where my family is from. And with the loss of both my parents and my grandparents, it is interesting how a place can take on even more personality and serve as a reminder of so much. I am a California native who has a bit of an addiction to education and knowing how to make things – I went to school at UC Berkeley, DePaul, Pepperdine, and Oxford for a variety of different things and specialties. I’ve most definitely evolved along the way starting my career out in marketing and now arriving here as a fashion designer. I have a soft spot for babies, big dogs, and comic books. I’ve read comic books since I was six years old and I still go every week to my local comic book shop – Isotope Comics right here in San Francisco – and get my “funny pages.”
2. When did you realize that you were into fashion design?
a. That’s both a fun and funny question in its way as I am not sure I really had “that” moment in the conventional way. My mother always imparted to us kids that we should always dress like the day matters because one never knows when it will or won’t and we should never be caught ill prepared either way. She was a clothing and gift buyer for the local college all through my childhood and so I grew up in the retail and clothing world with my after school time spent doing homework and when I wanted to take a break… I was given the “treat” of helping out around the store with things like tagging, pricing and hanging sweatshirts and t-shirts. My mother’s job was to keep on top of fashion and so it was a common topic that was baked in to almost everything we did and so I don’t think I ever really had that “A HA” moment that some have. Instead, I would say that I was raised this way… fashion is just part of my upbringing.
3. Who inspires you?
a. Inspiration is everywhere and so asking me who inspires me is fairly open-ended. If you are asking what designers inspire me, I would say that in contemporary terms Tom Ford inspires me and from fashions rolodex of amazing past designers, Marc Foster Grant of Jeanne Marc Clothing really makes me smile and think as Jeanne Marc Clothing made a lot of the luxury and designer dress clothes of the 80s that the women of “Dynasty” and “Designing Women” and “The Golden Girls” wore on TV and that really trickled down to the consumer and dictated a particular perspective for a decade. I would love to one day be responsible for a decade (or more) of decadence in fashion.
However, as your question is open-ended as to who inspires me…. I would have to take this further and say that inspiration comes from all people famous and otherwise in my life. For example, my business partner Nathan plays a role in my daily inspiration not because he is on the vanguard of fashion but instead because he is the opposite. Nathan is more like the “everyman” and so when I see a trend or a color or an idea make its way into his wardrobe and “style story”… I pay attention. Thanks to his proximity to me, I am always pushing him to be a bit more cutting edge… but he is my reference point for when “the world” might finally be ready for the adventure that I want to bring to it. And I find that so inspiring because at the end of the day if I don’t have a customer. If I don’t have someone who really wants to buy what we do at JAKE… then I am not really doing anything more than making pretty pictures and that just won’t do.
4. When designing, what do you use as inspiration?
a. I find inspiration from everywhere and everything. With this in mind, many of my collections are heavily influence by my love of cinema and pop culture. I find that as I approach each season, I will really find myself immersed in one particular film or another for whatever reason. It usually happens without me even realizing it and it will be a movie that I either own and that I might happen upon on Netflix, but I’ll watch it almost on repeat and have it on in the background while I am doing a myriad of other things without even consciously thinking about it. Then one day it will hit me how much it is something that is playing into my “current” sense of, well, everything. And once that moment happens… I will start to sketch.
5. What is your favorite kind of fabric?
a. My favorite fabrics tend to change from collection to collection or from season to season. Right now, I am still loving the ways we are able to play with denim and create things that people don’t typically think of when you think of denim and jeans. I love leather and interesting uses of leather combined with other textiles. And I am currently plan some interesting things with python for the 2016.
6. If you could work with ANY designer, who would you work with?
a. I know what question you are asking here and I am going to use the “looseness” of your language against you. You want me to pick a fashion designer… but instead I am going to pick Ken Fulk – a San Francisco based events designer and decorator – as I think we would make for amazing collaborations.
Education
7. When you realized that you could design clothes, did you want to go to school for it, or did you have another career path in mind?
a. I ventured down a different path when it comes to fashion. In 2010, I quit my job in Internet marketing and went on a bit of an “eat, pray, love” –like journey. Coincidently, I was listening to NPR one day and heard a great story about the lost art of bespoke tailoring and suit making and as I was looking at my travel
plans, I decided to take some time in Hong Kong to have a suit made in the true “old world” sense. One thing led to another and what started as just a single order evolved into an informal apprenticeship. I like to know how to make and do things and, really, this was all I was doing. I never imagined I would come back to the states and find myself making suits for a living. But fast forward five years later and here we are.
8. Where did you go to get your degree?
a. When it comes to education in the traditional sense, I hold degrees from UC Berkeley, DePaul University, and Pepperdine University.
Project Runway
9. When did you realize that you wanted to be on Project Runway?
a. The team at Project Runway reached out to me and expressed interest. I most definitely didn’t have the same “road to the runway” as most. Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor and I am never one to turn down a phone call or meeting with people doing interesting things, but Project Runway was never something on my radar and even going through the application and interview process with casting and the production company, I really thought of it as more of a networking opportunity. Before I could really fully comprehend the rollercoaster… the next thing I know, I was part of the cast for Season 14.
10. Did you audition for the show before, or did you go on once and get in?
a. They called me for Season 14 and the rest is history as they say – it’s a true exception to the traditional Project Runway experience as I understand most audition multiple times.
11. What was your favorite challenge from this season?
a. My favorite challenge from the season is the team paintball challenge. I love working collaboratively with amazing people and that is exactly what I had the opportunity to do with that challenge. Being able to create that amazing textile for my fellow designers which allowed each of them to have their own strong voices highlighted on the runway and yet still have six looks walk down the runway that were completely cohesive… it still makes me smile. And having Nina Garcia note that is was the best and most cohesive team presentation in all 14 seasons of Project Runway… well that just is the cherry on the sundae.
12. How did you feel when you saw the outpouring love after you left?
a. I am grateful each and every day for the 8 amazing years that I had with my dog Chance. He was truly this man’s best friend as he got me through the loss of both my parents and so many other things. He was there for the good and the bad. Words don’t quite do it justice to explain how moving it was and is as people reach out to share their feelings and often their support of the decision I made. It was a hard moment but one I don’t regret for a minute and the amazing
outpouring of people sharing their support and kind words really lifted and continues to lift my spirits. People are amazing and if there is one thing I will take from all of this, I will just say that we are so much better when we focus on supporting and building each other up rather than breaking each other down… so I will take this opportunity simply to say: thank you for the love and support, it means the world.
13. Is there a challenge you wish you could have been a part of?
a. I wish I could have been a part of the makeover challenge. At JAKE, we built our entire model first around custom clothing designed for individuals rather than ready-to-wear. I think I would have really been able to excel at working with the individual client – in this case a crew member from the show – and creating something amazing for her (or him).
14. What was your favorite look you designed this season?
a. Well, I would have to say that I loved my Hallmark Signature greeting card dress because it was the first unconventional materials challenge and I really enjoyed the entire process from start to finish and I think that what I created really looked like a dress and something you could wear out rather than paper. I love unconventional materials challenges because they make you “stretch” as a designer and, at least for me, realize how much I really am capable of when you remove “rules” and conventional guidelines and instead are forced to do and to “make it work.”
15. Who was/were your favorite designer(s) this season?
a. Easy answer… everything that my team created for the paintball team challenge. Each one of those designs was ON POINT in my opinion and the fact that Kelly Osborne said she could see herself wearing each and every one of them at a different moment and event just “sells” the validity of each of them to me.
16. Have you kept in contact with anyone after you left the show?
a. Absolutely. That’s one of the best things about Project Runway to me… it gifted me the opportunity to meet and get to know people that I would never have likely crossed paths with otherwise. Most recently, I reached out to Blake Patterson from LA and Joseph Charles Poli from Las Vegas to team up with me for a project with Macy’s. As part of their big Macy’s presents “Front Row,” the boys and I teamed up for a different kind of unconventional materials challenge where we pillaged the trash cans in their visual presentation and displays department to make six looks and, just like Kelly Osbourne, the evening’s host Guiliana Rancic found herself loving each and every one of the looks. I look forward to more moments like this if I am lucky – just because the show is over doesn’t mean the friendships and collaborations are.
17. If you could change anything, what would you change?
a. Well, this is an easy one, I would change the fact that Chance got sick and needed to be put down. But such things are outside my control and so the best I can do is live life and do the right things. So with the understanding that I can’t change that… well then, I would tell you that I wouldn’t change a thing.
After the Show
18. How have you been doing since Runway?
a. Life keeps me busy and being the creative director at my company JAKE is a big part of that. Since getting back to “the grind” here in San Francisco, we have been busy with special projects like our collaboration with Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Westfield here in San Francisco. At the same time, fall has arrived and we recently launched our Fall/Winter 2015 Bespoke Collection “BLVD” [ you can see the collection here: http://www.jake.clothing/blvd ] to much fanfare at our annual charity fundraiser and fashion experience -- JAKE presents BESPOKE in RED: A benefit for American Red Cross. This season also marks the release of my first limited edition ready-to-wear collection – Jake by JAKE [ you can see the collection here: http://www.jake.clothing/ticktock ] – which is five easy pieces for men and fives easy pieces for woman and, although it is unseasonably warm here in San Francisco, we are almost completely sold out of our first run. As my father used to say… it truly is no rest for the weary around here.
19. Just looking through your website, you seem to be into suits. What do you like about suits?
a. I got my start in hard tailoring and constructed menswear. It is “home” for me. Always has been and always will be no matter what other directions I might find myself adventuring in every now and again.
This or That?
20. Clean lines or flowy and loose?
a. Each has their place, but for now… clean lines.
21. Kors or Posen?
a. Why can’t I have both? Life shouldn’t always have to be about making a decision.
22. Urban or Rural/natural?
a. Urban.
Closing Remarks
23. Do you have any advice for the next generation of designers?
a. Remember that fashion is a business not just a creative art. Muses are amazing and we should all have that amazing “inspiration” personified to help us create
but at the end of the day you need a customer. You need a living breathing person with the disposable income to buy into your creativity. Find that customer and do everything in your power to keep them entertained because at the end of the day fashion is about entertaining people or better of for worse.
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