Jan/Feb 2014
The Informer
DESIGN BUREAU
FASHION & BEAUTY
Strings Attached Fashion designer Jojo Ross sums up her aesthetic in four words: “Future. Ridiculous. Robot couture.” The 2011 graduate of Otago Polytechnic, located on New Zealand’s south island of Dunedin, spent last year toting her string-theory-inspired graduate collection, The Anomalies, to fashion shows and events. Now she chats with us about inspiration, whether or not we’re alone in the universe, and working with string—lots of string.
How did you come to find yourself interested in string theory, so much so that you decided to apply that interest to your fashion?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with space, with mystery, with the unknown. I’d heard snippets of information on string theory, now technically called M-theory, as an 18-year-old university student, and I was captivated by the fact that this relatively small equation could totally change what we thought we know about our world and universe. I was totally, utterly seduced. A few weeks prior to starting my collection, I was hunting through a second-hand store in my hometown, and I stumbled across a book from the ’60s on string art called Pictures With Pins. With my origins in mathematics, this art form was the perfect medium to express my ideas on string theory. Each piece in this collection was hand-woven and used between 70 and 250 meters of string. What was the process like? How long did each piece take you?
I drilled holes in PVC and weaved designs through it, creating a layer on the front and back sides, as opposed to a layer on the surface. I created a 3D structure by tensioning the string to create shape. Each piece took incredibly long; my largest piece took around 40 hours, but that’s just weaving the PVC— tensioning the garments into shape is a whole other process, which I do on a mannequin. I shudder to think how many hours I spent with the string! You’ve cited questions like “Is our universe really alone?” as inspiration. What else inspires you?
My obsession with space is closely followed by a love for math, science, and nature. These things hold such incredible revelations, and to discover and understand something truly extraordinary is just so inspiring. Reading is another passion of mine; I struggle to find direct inspiration in physical things. When I’m in my initial stages of design, I always talk about how it will feel, not how it will look. I use piles of words and emotions, not pictures. a
Portrait by Matt Queree. Fashion photo by Charlotte McLachlan.
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