Writings on NYC Walls Inspire a Fashion Collection

Wade Jeffree’s latest fashion collection finds inspiration in the scuffs and markings all over New York City.

by Antwaun Sargent

October 8, 2015, 4:50pm

All images courtesy of Wade Jeffree

Walking through New York City there are scuffs, stains, scratches and writing all over the walls that line the streets, impressions on the city landscape that are routinely walked passed and forgotten. These marks recently caught the eyes of Wade Jeffree, inspiring the graphic designer's first fashion collection with Print All Over Me. “By re-contextualizing the marks, scratches, stains and spills onto the clothing, I am aiming to reinvigorate the mundane,” explains Jeffree, whose collection includes monochromatic white pants, jackets, skirts, and bathing suits that are imbued with the unique markings of New York City’s urban environment.

Unlike other designers who abstractly use the energy of people as inspirations for their fashion collections, Jeffree’s capsule collection uses concrete markings that exist on New York City's trains, buses, buildings, roads, and sidewalks, recasting the lived-in environment in a new light. The collection also explores the possibilities of mark making—a form of artistic expression that has long been a tool visual artists employ to signify ideas, represent moments, and emotion in their work—as a strategy used in fashion. In Jeffree’s collection, that language and technique can be seen in the lines and the pops of color that appear on the clothing.

“As a designer we play with deliberate forms of communication, which can sometimes manifest as mark making,” explains Jeffree, who recently had a solo design show called Optically Unconscious that explored the digital obsession of sharing imagery devoid of its original context. “I have been collecting the [found] imagery for some time and really wanted to have it sit outside of its everyday context,” Jeffree tells the Creators Project. “After collecting these marks and stains, I photoshopped them to separate the elements that felt right.” In their final form, a collection of black abstract scribbles and numbers are written on the garments. “From there I was able to mix and match the paint stains with scratches and marks and create uniquely rich patterns,” he adds.

Conceptually, Jeffree wants the collection to help people consider their surrounds in the city. “By allowing the marks to manifest in a new form, I hope that people can find more excitement in the everyday,” says Jeffree. “Having shot the collection in the streets where some of the elements were collected also adds a nice duality to my concepts final form.”