One Dixie Heights High School graduate is making waves in the fashion realm.
Jessy Zimmer, a native of Edgewood, Kentucky, left the Bluegrass State to pursue a degree in fashion design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Her senior collection, “Fox Hunt Pageant,” was on display at the college’s spring fashion show and ended up making it into the pages of Vogue Magazine. But she hasn’t forgotten where she came from.
“I feel like I’m always taking inspiration from where I grew up and how I grew up … I started sewing at 9 years old. As a kid, I was part of a lot of 4H programs in Kenton County, and it was actually a 4H class where I learned to sew,” Zimmer said.
While conceiving her senior collection, Zimmer was reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman and “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf. It got her thinking about classism and the first wave of feminism, when inspiration struck. What if she did a collection exploring the domestic spheres of old, and how women broke out of the cultural mold? Thus, “Fox Hunt Pageant” was born, which explores “the quiet rage of aristocratic wives left at home while their husbands embark on a fox hunt.” The collection incorporates elements of equestrian menswear alongside unique fabrics.
“I did a lot of research on what actual fox hunters would have been wearing back then. I did my own takes on things like jodhpurs [ankle-length riding pants],” she said. “I also did like a trompe l’oeil fox fur print on silk. You’d be surprised how many people throughout the year walked up to my garments and touched them and realized it’s not real fur, it’s a print on a flat piece of fabric.”
As the collection debuted at SCAD’s fashion show, Zimmer found herself in a position of critical acclaim from fashion sources all across the country.
“Overnight, the fashion show just opened so many things up. You’re seeing things from people who didn’t even know you existed now commenting on your work and appreciating it,” she said. “I was obviously very proud of how my collection turned out regardless, but I knew the merit that it had, and I knew the impact it could have on the runway. So, being a Vogue-featured designer after all this hard work is a feeling unlike any other … It’s so rewarding and so surprising when you’re swiping through different fashion accounts on Instagram, and you see your work on it.”
Zimmer has converted that critical acclaim into a role at URBN, the corporation that owns the retailers Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People. Currently, she’s interning with the print and pattern design team at Anthropologie in Philadelphia—where her research skills she honed in the process of designing her collection are coming in handy.
“It’s very similar to the concepting stage for my senior collection, where I was finding different aesthetics or different elements of fashion and weaving them into its own little story. It’s so fun doing that for a large corporation and a large storefront,” she said.
In the future, she plans to jump around to all different areas of fashion, which she refers to as an “infinite tree of possibilities”—whether it’s working on other garments, like dresses and tops, or even expanding her repertoire and working toward tech design or communication with vendors on garment construction. Her ultimate goal is to produce her own ready-to-wear collection.
“The runway is very exciting, but the customer I’m designing for is looking for something she’s wearing all the time. She’s looking for the perfect skirt, you know, the skirt that she feels most confident in,” she said. “Something I always reach back to is empowering women. Even when that comes down to like the simplest basics. It’s about designing something that she feels pretty in, and feels confident in. That’s something that’s always going to motivate me and drive me wherever I go.”
Soon, her work from “Fox Hunt Pageant” will be on sale in SCAD’s concept shop, which she’s excited for. But what she’s most looking forward to is returning to Cincinnati this summer. She’ll be in town for the Fourth of July, and is excited to go to the parade celebrating the holiday in Fort Mitchell. She’s ready to head to a Cincinnati sports game, hit up Findlay Market, go thrift shopping with her friends, and all the other things she can’t do while working in Pennsylvania.
“I used to work for the Cincinnati Reds when I first got out of high school, so I do miss going across the river and rooting for the Reds and the Bengals, which I still do. I miss my family, my friends, just walking around the city … so it makes it very meaningful when I return for holidays and such. Doing all the things I did in high school but now as an adult starting my career always makes it feel special to come back.”
