JRAT makes us "homesick" with her ss25 nyfw debut

In a trendfriends exclusive, we talk with emerging designer Janelle Abbott on her SS25 NYFW debut collection, that is a deconstructed fever-dream

Sep 13, 2024

Located at Kaleidoscope Studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, emerging designer Janelle Abbott made her NYFW SS25 debut with her Zero Waste label JRAT last Sunday, September 8th.

Janelle Abbott pictured by Zach Thomas @sustainablequeer

The new collection intermingles nostalgia for the school days spent at home, sick with the fever dream of daytime television that often entertained those adolescent days away from school. Abbott cites the game show The Price Is Right as a major inspiration behind the designs and the spectacle of the runway show. Even before the models walked the runway (with campy and inspired theatrics), the pre-show music, performed by DJ Dark Wiley, was a mashup of “Guess” by Charli XCX and TPIR’s gameshow theme song, further encapsulating the in-between state of the collection. In a time when body diversity and disability inclusivity seem to be dwindling from the runway, this debut made a refreshing point that all bodies can enjoy innovative, sustainable, and upcycled clothing.

Below is our exclusive Q&A interview with the dynamite emerging designer whose designs bring us into the future with how she deconstructs the past.

Provided by Zach Thomas @sustainablegueer

Provided by Zach Thomas @sustainablequeer

What is the JRAT “Homesick” SS25 Collection inspired by? Could you talk a bit about the dream state of staying home sick from school in the 90s and early 00s (before being able to Zoom in) and how the clothes reflect that in-between transitional moment?

Homesick is a material, aesthetic, and conceptual extension of my 2023-2024 series, Channel Changer. It’s about the lived experience of staying home sick from school—stuffy, sweaty delirium. Cuddling in your parents clothes while they’re at work. Waking up in the middle of a TV show tangled up in a blanket on the couch— the collection also speaks to the hollowing nature of nostalgia; when memories become a reminder of the inability to retain or regain the past. I used pillowy, ruffled, snowman-esque silhouettes contrasted with shredded, textured, grungy painted surfaces to elicit this dichotomy.

What is the ethos behind “making fond moments out of miserable moments”? How does fashion play a role in retrospectively feeling fondly about a period of time where you were previously miserable (I.E: Being super sick and not able to go to school)?

Miserable moments are the commercial breaks of life—something to endure and live through in order to remind yourself why you’re here doing what you’re doing, once you return to regular programming. I’ve spent several of the past years trying to process a decade of trauma, and it’s just been since this time in 2023 that I’ve come to experience what post-traumatic growth looks and feels like for me. Miserable moments in my past are now touch stones to reinforce that I’ve come far from where I was and I am still moving forward. Fashion feeds into this, personally, because the pieces I had through those tough times are still in my closet and now I can see them for the complexity that they contain—they offer me space to rewrite old stories and internalize better narratives.

What is your creative process like? Do the designs come first or do you base your work off of the materials you source?

Collecting and curating reclaimed materials from friends, family, followers, free boxes, etc. is integral to my practice. Each collection begins with a group of materials—both found clothing and deadstock textiles—that center on a specific concept, color way, and specific methodology (in this case, my adaptation of the chenille technique as it applies to my 3T series and variations thereof). I use textile manipulations like dying, painting, beading, etc. to increase cohesion, work on pieces to a point, assess what I have, then begin designing more specific pieces to bridge gaps in styling and merchandising. The final collection is often 50% what I had initially set out to achieve, and 50% things I discovered along the way.

What daytime television shows from growing up inspire your work and this debut collection the most?

The Price is Right! I loved going grocery shopping with my mom as a kid, and even now as an adult, when I’m in a new city, I’ll tour grocery stores as if they were living museums of the local culture and way of life. I love how TPIR creates so much spectacle and excitement around something as pedestrian as grocery prices. I was recently on a spree of watching vintage The Price is Right episodes on YouTube, so that’s what really compelled me to dig deeper into the Homesick color palette especially.

What are we now missing from streaming platforms that we once had in daytime television? How do you try to capture monocultural moments in your designs?

My practice and this collection both celebrate the endless possibilities that limitations provide. I only work with reclaimed materials, and I only create through the zero waste methodology—limits challenge my creative capacity to expand so that I am always seeking to maximize what is possible within my designated perimeters. I feel streaming has turned this joy of discovery into a chore—TV used to offer rewards for anticipation. The wait is over and now unlimited options make for fatigue and uninspired consumption.

How does sustainability play a role and would you say the collection recycles nostalgia for a different era?

This collection validates the persistence of the past into the present. By using reclaimed materials, some of which were manufactured 20 years ago, I am acknowledging that what has come before us will always remain with us, and thus, it is our responsibility to rework and resolve the past for the sake of the future. I see making clothes from clothes, wearing clothes made from clothes, and owning more second hand clothes as a public service, because it keeps those items out of landfills, thrift stores, and off the shores of developing nations who shouldn’t be responsible for resolving the waste issues generated by the Global North.

Lately, it seems everyone is nostalgic for how we dressed in late adolescence. Why do you think our previous pubescent selves have a chokehold on style in adulthood?

I see my personal style as a linear thread, so my current mode of dress is an evolution of every version of my younger self. For me, there was a lot of creative liberty, innocence, and romance in the way I explored fashion as a pre-teen, and I know I’ve lost that at different times in my life. So anytime I regain a sense of excitement, play, and curiosity for clothing and styling, I feel Jr. High Janelle gets refreshed and reemerges.

If you could select a first day of school outfit again, what would you wear and why?

My first day of high school I wore a vintage 1960s floral house dress with a petticoat underneath and a crochet lace tank on top. I had white fishnets and white go-go boots with a dark brown bob haircut. I met my best friend the first day of school because she was dressed like a weirdo too, so I wouldn’t change a thing.