GEEKED: Tell us a little bit about how you got started. Jess: I’ve never been an avid follower of fashion. I prefer to take inspiration from unusual places rather than following trends. I’ve just started my BA (Hons) Fashion at Middlesex University and the guy at the art shop says I’m the first fashion student he’s met to rock up to lessons in jeans, a hoodie and a Batman top. That’s not the only thing that makes me the world’s most unlikely fashion student: my designs mix science, maths and fashion to create pieces of art which aim to inform and inspire. With A Levels in Chemistry, French and Product Design, I had no idea what I wanted to do after sixth form. I loved science, but wasn’t that good at it and didn’t have the right qualifications to study fashion. I also had three years work with Alica Kerteszova at the Clothing Surgery in Bradford on Avon and had done a mini apprenticeship with her during my AS levels. I applied for Art and Design Foundation at Trowbridge College as something to do during my gap year and it turned out to be the best year of my life. I made skirts based on molecules, a jacket made from The Financial Times and lots of other nerdy things. I didn’t realise how nerdy and science/maths based they were until my friend pointed it out. My ideas were working really well, so I made a conscious decision from then on to include as much science and maths in my work as possible. Most people at college didn’t understand it, but it was something different so I decided to go with it. This eventually paid off. G: What would you say was your break-out moment? J: Late in 2011, stand-up mathematician Matt Parker tweeted a picture of a heptagrin spiral. I saw it and fell in love with the shape, so decided to use it my design work. I came up with a skirt prototype and after going to Festival of the Spoken Nerd in January 2012, Matt emailed me asking if I’d like to show it at the next FOTSN in May. Onstage at the Bloomsbury Theatre. In London. A sell-out gig with over 500 people. How could I say no? The skirt got such a great response that I decided to set up an Etsy store and sell them. I was referred to as Heptagrin Girl by some people at the show, so I decided to use
the same name for my shop (http://www.etsy.com/ shop/HeptagrinGirl?ref=si_shop). Towards the end of my foundation course, I had an interview at Middlesex University. I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I decided to just go for it and be myself. As usual, I spent all of two minutes doing my make up that morning, threw on jeans and the blazer I’d stayed up making until 2am the night before and headed off up to London. My friend at college had said to me “blind them with science!”. I was interviewed by Meg Osborne, the course leader, and her first question was: “What would you say your style of work was?” Instead of naming a million designers I could relate my work to, what I’d been holding back all through college came out. I told her I mixed science, maths and fashion to create art. I told her that I wanted my work to communicate science to a wider audience. Fashion has a huge influence on society, so why not use it to explore new ways of educating people about subjects they had previously dismissed? I also said that as separate entities, science and art are beautiful. So why not combine them to create something amazing? Meg said that she was currently reading a book by Richard Dawkins. I said I’d been to a show where he was speaking. We then proceeded to have a twenty minute chat about science and the media, after which she offered me an unconditional place on the spot. So that’s how I got to where I am now! G: What are your plans going forward: J: I’m currently working on turning a large proportion of fashion students into nerds (I did it at college last year, I will do it here too) and have already got a small group of art students going to a Festival of the Spoken Nerd tour show this month. After my degree, I’m thinking of either following it up with an MA or expanding Heptagrin Girl. But something I would love to do is collaborate with scientists or engineers, to create wonderful and unique pieces of art. G