Photographs by Jody RogacLeft: Flora Gill. Center: Jessica Yuen and Genevieve Fernety talk shop with their mentors. Right: Alexa Adams.Jessica Yuen is the 25-year-old designer behind Bedford Street Laundry. Genevieve Fernety, also 25, designs Agamic with her partner Mikey Wydra. Yuen gravitates toward the architectural but with a feminine touch, as in a crisscrossing vest or body-conscious corset with a flouncy skirt. Fernety’s line, which is unisex, is built on pieces like color-blocked jersey leggings and track jackets. So what do the two designers have in common? They both interned for Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel, finalists for last year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. “I was mentored by Ingrid Solomonson,” Adams says. “She took me under her wing in the same way that we do with our interns. It allows you to learn so much and pushes yourself to creatively express your ideas.”
Working for Ohne Titel, Yuen and Fernety were able to experience every aspect of a young fashion business firsthand — from sketching and fittings to production meetings where budgets are reviewed. Not that they always followed their mentors’ leads. “I made 80 pieces for my first collection,” Fernety says with a laugh. “They told me I don’t need to be making that many. But at least I have a huge closet now!” With two seasons under their belts and still a lot to learn, the young designers went back to Ohne Titel for a pep talk.
Above: Bedford Street Laundry. Below: Agamic.Yuen: From season to season, do you make concrete goals?
Ohne Titel: We try to make some goals, but then at the same time we really want to be free to kind of think of something inspirational that’ll be new for that season. It depends on the designer; we think that’s the great thing about having experience working with a variety of people. You realize that people are completely individual in the process that they have and the way they get to the final result.
Fernety: But how do you conceptualize growing from season to season?
Ohne Titel: What makes a collection strong is that every season you try to deepen what your concept is and what your brand image is and what you’re trying to convey. So it’s not a story that’s changing, but it’s more of an idea that is growing.
Yuen: Did you ever say to yourself, This is too hard, I want to give up?
Ohne Titel: Of course it’s very hard. [Laughing.] That’s the joy of growing and creating something from the ground up. So, yes, we definitely had moments. But those moments can be the most creative because you have to find a solution.
Fernety: Is there one piece of advice you were given that has always stuck with you?
Ohne Titel: You just have to do what you believe in most. If you try to change your vision to accommodate something foreign to yourself or something you don’t love, then it will never be great.
Fernety: Who taught you that?
Ohne Titel: An intern application, I think.
Yuen: Do you think that from generation to generation, designers face different challenges?
Ohne Titel: There is always a question of the economic climate, but it’s usually all the same issues. There are different times, but it’s the same classic situation of how to grow as a brand and how to explore what you want to do.
Yuen: Oh, I always wanted to know if you both went into Parsons knowing you would go into designing?
Ohne Titel: Yes, we both went there with the pure intent to go into fashion.
Fernety: What kind of inspirations do you find that you’re always going back to?
Ohne Titel: We do always go back to technology, science, athleticism, some idea of those studies, because to us it’s really about working with the fabric and creating something new.
Yuen: What is the most important thing you guys have learned from each other?
Ohne Titel: That’s a good one!
Gill: Alexa has an almost poetic sense of volume and silhouette. It’s nuanced and it’s so interesting. I’ve learned this detailed, nuanced eye from here. I’m always blown away by her vision.
Adams: And Flora has taught me to be more experimental. I’ve always felt that her whole process is something that from working together has gotten me more into. She starts from the material up and then lets the material create a silhouette or an idea for a piece which is really strong.
Chelsea Zalopany: Would you say this is the best internship you’ve had?
Fernety and Yuen: Yes, absolutely.
Bedford Street Laundry and Agamic are available at Eva, 355A Bowery; (212) 925-3890.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 25, 2011
An earlier version of this post misstated the year that Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel were finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. It was 2010, not 2011.
