Jackson Wiederhoeft’s Theatrical RTW Collection

March 08, 2022

Jackson Wiederhoeft’s debut ready-to-wear collection, ‘Wiederhoeft’, offers an escape into a whimsical world inspired by theater, ballet, the occult, costumery, and color. Introduced to fashion through high school theater, they moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design, hustled, interned as much as possible and, ultimately, worked for Thom Browne for three years. They left their stint at Thom Browne having learned that theater and fashion can and do intersect, that fashion and design can be worldbuilding and that a collection can tell a story.

Their debut ready-to-wear collection is a story told in a lot of pink and green, with more black and white than they normally work with, featuring grandma chic fabrics, embroidered red carpet-worthy hoodies inspired by the question “What would Lil Nas X wear on the red carpet?”, jewelry reworked from vintage material and coin purses that can fit, quite literally, only a few coins. Wiederhoeft carefully created a collection with a balance between color and neutrals and simplicity and intricacy, with hopes of making wearers feel like the best, most authentic versions of themselves.

Interview by Bianca Asare
Photos courtesy of Jackson Wiederhoeft

When did you first become a part of the fashion world and when did you know that you wanted to be a designer?

I moved to New York to go to Parsons in 2012, so I've lived here almost for 10 years and then I just started interning the minute I got here. I worked for Thom Browne for three years and I launched this collection in 2019, but I'd say I was more drawn to costume design first when I was in high school through working on school plays and stuff like that. I just found that the storytelling aspect of clothing was really powerful to me and that's kind of like, I kind of came to fashion through costume design.

Where are you from originally?

Houston.

Did Houston inspire you at all to become a part of fashion?

I don't know. I feel like when I was a senior in high school I was kind of like, what I knew was costume design and kind of, I saw fashion as this very aspirational, glowing thing. And I couldn't decide between the two and I figured, 'Well, if I moved to New York, I could probably just do both. There's theater here and there's also fashion so I was like, well, I'll just move to New York and then I don't have to decide until later.’ And I still kind of feel sometimes like I haven't really decided, you know? It's just better to do both. That's actually how I met Thom Browne. I was working for a costume designer and he was the associate designer on an off-Broadway show that Thom designed. So I came to fashion like through costume, literally.

How much is this collection and the way that you approach your work inspired or influenced by your time working for Thom Browne?

I feel like what I loved about Thom was not so much the aesthetic itself. The color gray doesn't really speak me. Suiting doesn't really speak to me, but he's also a storyteller and I feel like he creates these worlds and I love the theatricality of it so much. And just the dedication to this very niche, very kind of a crafted world. And I think that's what inspired me the most, this idea that you could create your own world .you don't just have to be a part of what already exists. It's a lot harder to make something that's like, you know, more unique, but I saw through him that if I just like stuck with it, I could maybe do it too.

What else has influenced this collection?

This collection specifically? Well, it kind of all comes back to this sense of theater and high school. I kind of wanted to create this like post-Hogwarts world. I feel like recently, like all my queer friends, who've been getting their Harry Potter tattooes covered up and stuff like that. You know, it's coming of age in a sense. Everyone in this generation, we're growing up now, we're adults and getting to design collections and do stuff and also kind of, I feel like for many people that I know, this like sense of magic and the occult is a very interesting queer thing that inspires their art. For many people, they came to that through Harry Potter. So one big thing in this collection that was inspiring was kind of recapturing that sense of magic that recently many of us have felt kind of like betrayed by, but harnessing it in a new way that feels personal. You can still like have that magic without having to give homage to people that we now realize are not the best representation of this world.

What do you want this collection and your work in general to evoke? What do you want people who view it or wear it to feel?

I want them to feel powerful. I want them to feel magical. I want them to feel like they can do anything. And I feel like, yes, the clothes are very theatrical and at times quite costumey, but I don't really want to transform people into something else. I want to help them become their best self. And I feel like when people put the clothes on, especially really crazy kind of looks, they're able to kind of just like, I prefer to look at it as like becoming themselves, they're the best version of themselves. So I think in a way it's almost like, you know, it is like character-based and I love the sense of costume, but I feel like with costume design, you're obviously dressing up to become someone else, but I think with these clothes, you're dressing up to become your very best self.

What else are you looking forward to in the future in terms of work?

I'd really love to design a film one day. I don't have that on the horizon, but yeah. This collection was kind of a practice run at that. I kind of just wanna do everything. I don't know. I'd love to design a ballet. I'd love to design more ready-to-wear. I mean, now I've kind of done bridal and the ready-to-wear. I want to do both. I just wanna do everything. It's fun. I wanna keep collaborating with really great people And yeah, I don't know. I just wanna like work all day and create nice things that people can enjoy.

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