| "I am not going to dashiki people to death," was a poignant remark I can recall Jae Jarrell making in a long ago conversation we had about fashion and style. She was speaking within the context of her career as a fashion artist at a time when the changes in fashion styles in a large sector of the Black nation in America were heavily influenced by identification with all things African, whether abroad or in America. In the late 1960's, one could say, if you designed a better dashiki the World would wear out a path to your door. Plenty of shops specializing in garb based upon simple African styles (pull over shirts, or dashikis) and wraps, opened up for an obliging market,. It could be said, in retrospect, that the age of Superfly, bell bottom pants, vinyl coats, and platform shoes, also ruled the day in popular fashion. For a designer like Jae, staking out new ground while staying above the fray, with respect to fads, and surviving as a fashion artist was a daunting challenge. She had been well into her career for years before helping to get AFRICOBRA off the ground, having catered to a niche market of individuals not satisfied with off the rack design, but who preferred clothing which had a timeless, classical look. Ever the entrerpreneur, Jae marketed her new, uniquely designed suede leather beret in periodicals, and for a time sold exclusively via mail order. At the same tie, she was involved along with her husband Wadsworth, in hosting meetings of AFRICOBRA in the WJ Studio. Buying into the idea of forming a group with the other four founders, Jae was constantly searching for a way in which she could translate the ideas and concepts bandied about in brain storming session into her medium of expression. She will be the first to remind anybody that the core artistic discipline is the same for fashion artists as it is for all artists and she was right at home in evaluating the other member's work. Jae, unbeknownst to many, is pretty much a pioneer as a result of having to reorient her thinking to the developing AFRICOBRA environment. Her idea of painting on garments (wearable art) took the arts and crafts industry nearly twenty years to develop into a craze that still enjoys widespread popularity. Remember, T-shirt printing, with all manner of images and graphics, did not exist in 1968. In the 1980's fabric painting became a huge fad as hobbyists began painting on T-shirts, blouses caps, dresses, shoes, etc. Newly manufactured acrylic paints were formulated with softening medium to make the colors more pliant when they dried on fabric. Yet, way back in 1968 Jae had already formulated a way to combine art and fashion when she began using her garment as a painter used canvas to paint images on. The clothing she created, in a word, were her canvas. If ever there was a genesis of a genre, one need only look at some of the hip hop garb of the last two decades, and the work of Jae Jarrell should clearly register. Her response to the group's assignment to create a work themed the Black Family was her imposing dress, which bears the image of parents and children embellished constructed with patches of cloth and suede. Her woman's tweed ensemble "Revolutionary Suit" bears a faux bandolier, or "bullet belt" made of suede with colorfully painted "coolade" colored wooden bullets. It simulated the then universal symbol of revolution, yet it has the timlessness which she felt was an important quality in her work. Upon seeing the garment at the AFRICOBRA pavilion in Chicago's Black Expo in 1970, the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone, exclaimed "I've been looking for something like that for a long time." |
