The new shrine, Bartlett Baron store in Walnut Creek. They carry a few other lines, but it's chock full of her men's clothing. Jhane Barnes was at the opening!
Jhane Barnes designs the most beautiful textiles and puts them into men's shirts.
She deserves a fan site.
She also does a full line of menswear, some nice furniture, and contract furnishings. Fine stuff. But her mens' sportswear shirts are unrivalled perfection. Any designer can crank out an abstract chunky sweater as worn by Bill Cosby.
The new shrine, Bartlett Baron store
in Walnut Creek. They carry a few other lines, but it's chock full of her men's
clothing. Jhane Barnes was at the opening!
JhaneBarnes (is God) herself, flanked by the legendary Larry Bedini (owner of
thousands of Jhane's designs as profiled
on JhaneBarnes.com) and her sales/service expert John Danielson.
Jhane
with the "Infrastructure"
shirt I bought, which she signed!. The white loop looks overwhelming in pictures,
but it's an integral part of the design in person. This is a "push-pull"
design, the reverse is all white except where the loop appears.
Suiting
fabrics and ties.
Jhane
with Mike Skaar wearing "Frame".
Skaar Furniture can put Jhane
Barnes textiles on contract furniture
Jhane explains an early design brought by another fan. (I wore a bolero jacket
from an early Jhane Barnes II collection. 1984 4evar!)
Here's
co-owner Paul Bartlett, wearing "Ramp",
another amazing push-pull shirt. There's a subtle larger pattern drifting across
the shirt.
I also bought a "Mission" leather jacket (and I don't normally like leather jackets) and a "Quadrant" fractal bricks shirt. John Danielson gave me free men's boxers, and co-owner Peter Baron comped me two pairs of socks.
Comments on earlier collections.
I thought I was insane to have 25 of these shirts. JhaneBarnes.com had an article about Larry Bedini and his 600 shirt collection, and the salespeople at Jhane Barnes Las Vegas claim to have 700 and 900 shirts each.
Anyway, here they are on wash day (click for an even larger display, also see them sprawling on the bed)
This should give you a sense of the artistry involved. It's multiple bands and blocks of colors and patterns on different grids, but the scale of the patterns and the interplay of them relate to the scale of the person wearing the shirt beautifully.
They all look great, but many of the shirts have an extra dimension of texture from the weaving process. The inky-blue one is "Basho", a 3-D woven iridescent marvel where the strands spiral over each other.
The sandy beige one is "Darjeeling". It suggests maps and tracks in the desert, just gorgeous.
or
one shirt transforms your wardrobe.
Insert intimidating Mont Blanc Meisterstuck, elegant Waterman fountain pen, or plastic pen protector in the shirt pocket according to taste :o)
If you have pictures of shirts, send me links (spage@skierpage.com). Thanks to those who have sent me photos already.
