This Multi-Cultural Black Sustainable Fashion Designer Presents An Intentional Collection Once A Year While Working With A Japanese Patternmaker To Reference His Late Grandmother's Kimonos

We are so elated to connect with Johnathan Hayden - an exquisite sustainable fashion designer and story teller from rich Black culture and Japanese Heritage.

How do you define sustainability/responsibility?

Very Simply: Doing the right thing. Fashion can be wrapped up alot in ego and identity (as it should), but from a product development perspective, I see every stage of development to be an opportunity to inch that dial towards consistent sustainable practice. Entreating our supply chain to work patiently with us to use our waste and adjust to our smaller order volume has taken time as many suppliers and vendors already have their own processes and don't want one small brand to slow them down. It DOES require good faith to build those relationships so that they grow - and that means you need the supplier's belief in your future and trust in financial health. Speed is what got fashion into trouble, so we say speed does not mean haste.

When and why did you become a designer?

I started designing in college in Dallas, Texas competing outside my fashion design courses. My freshman year, I was able to show my first denim collection in Nice. When I was finishing up my graduate studies at The Savannah College of Art and Design, a dress I made using Augmented Reality technology won in an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art "Met Gala" in 2016. I can't pinpoint when I "became" a designer, but moments like these convinced me it was worth striking out on my own to see what I could build as a brand. Design is just a problem solving process and that can include ANYONE. We conduct several instances of audience engagement through surveys and participatory trunk-like/pop-up opportunities that gather data. A big belief of mine that came from my thesis (Augmented Reality) was engaging the consumer to understand and improve the pathology in the consumer/product relationship, a more mutually and emotionally invested one - to me, making what people actually want (not what they've been marketed through targeted ads to want, is a sustainable approach to design).

How do you contextualize this idea of sustainability within the intersections of your culture?

I am Black, Japanese, White, and Spaniard. If I would have enlisted I would have been the fourth generation "John" of the men in my family to serve this country in the military. So I take the significance of my being in Fashion with a lot of responsibility and a sense of duty. While the larger arching philosophies of my design might run parallel with sustainable and ethical practices, I contextualize my culture by: working with a Japanese patternmaker to reference my late grandmother Matsuko's kimonos and develop new modern shapes OR in business model, understanding myself how difficult it has been to access manufacturing in this industry and build those contacts, open up my facilities in The Garment District to invite marginalized designers with the resources at my factory partnership on 38 x 8. We try to do a lot of storytelling around these different facets of the brand so that when a customer or a buyer sees the price, they understand completely what they're buying into. We view their investment as a relationship built on trust. Brands have to provide the opportunities for consumers to shop their conscience.

What inspires your brand and how do you keep that energy fluid in an industry often filled with smoke & mirrors?

I only PRESENT a collection once a year, so that presentation might include samples we developed further back, recuts of existing styles in newer colors/fabrics, and then sprinkle in new options that continue to expand the lifestyle. Opening up my calendar like this allows me to get the customer feedback before and after a presentation, select with their voice in mind what we will place in stores or on our site, and then spend the rest of my time developing. A large part of the brand identity is in developing textiles (often through the use of printing, beads, and embroidery - or a combination of these techniques) so the silhouettes stay fresh though we cut classic. That being said, I am inspired a lot by Anime and Science fiction. We focus on women in STEM related fields so I try to harmonize my attraction to graphic and tessellating patterns (some influences rooted in 60s and Art Nouveau art and color from modern abstract expressionists) with a sense of pragmatism in utilitarian clothing and garment details the customer explicitly describes.

What has been your greatest challenge thus far?

Growing. We know we have good products. I've been prudent to build out a foundation with my manufacturing that allows me to work in the way I want when I want (trusting my intuition for when a product feels like the next organic step to introduce beyond pursuing revenue). However, visibility on platforms that could legitimize my brand to take up even the smallest percentage of real estate space in the consumer's mind for brand recognition is the toughest. We don't have the social currency of established luxury and heritage brands so convincing someone to spend their hard earned money takes time.

Where do you hope to see the future of fashion / sustainable fashion as we climb out of a global pandemic and adjust to heightened awareness of our racial pandemic?

It's worth mentioning the existing model of harnessing the power of celebrity is an elitist clique nearly impossible to become a part of. Ego prevents evolution. It is more apparent than ever in a pandemic that a fashion system that depends on celebrity culture heavily to perpetuate desire is not necessarily one that is sustainable. The pageantry and photographs are nice, but the stark contrast of this "Hunger Games Capitol dressing" to the destruction of our planet and democracy feels like a very..."privileged Maria Antoinette euphoria". I don't know if that image ages well. Even the most beautiful work starts to feel rooted in a cynicism to be carefree when such a chasm of disparity exists between the planet, the labor, and the social class that can afford such luxuries. It's important to dream, but I don't think ONE designer is a messiah with some divine ability to make others dream - that can and should look different for different people. We really have to work together and in that sentiment, I hope fashion evolves that harmony of what we need with what we want so that more voices are, indeed, included. It's not enough to just be beautiful. Fashion must do, make, and be better.