Meet All Beneath Heaven, a Jimmy Alexander designer label.
It is her style debut: a gender-neutral line crafted from custom-made natural supplies. Created in India, utilizing truthful labor practices, it’s a vivid assortment of fits, collared shirts, tailor-made pants, shorts and graphic tees.
“If you happen to’re doing it by yourself to start with, you may set these requirements after which you need to reside by them,” Alexander stated.
“What does high quality imply past the fabric, high quality by way of intention,” he continued. “That actually is high quality.”
Alexander lives in Highland Park, northeast of Los Angeles, and is initially from a small city close to Brighton, England. He studied drama and theater in Birmingham earlier than transferring to London, the place he spent 10 years working in promoting after which music administration.
“I all the time had the sensation that I had one thing to say in myself,” he stated. “Dressing has been the best way I specific myself all through my life. That is most likely one of many constants.”
It was after transferring to Los Angeles 4 years in the past that he left music to pursue design. And his path took a flip after he walked into the Mohawk Basic Retailer in Silver Lake, he stated, and befriended house owners Kevin and Bo Carney. He confirmed Kevin the sketches of him they usually employed him to do styling jobs and purchase journeys to New York and Paris.
“That lasted six months after which the pandemic got here,” Alexander stated.
It was then that The whole lot Below Heaven, two years within the making, started to take form.
“I name them chapters,” he stated of the collections, referring to the items as “expressions.” “That is the prologue. The following one can be chapter one.”
Utilizing hand embroidery, silk, linen, cotton, velvet, all natural, and painted by hand prints, there’s a childlike poetic sensibility all through.
“All Beneath Heaven actually grew out of my curiosity in metaphysics and Zen and the concept that it is a common thoughts,” he stated.
He referred to as a swimsuit jacket “Attain for the Stars Inside,” which incorporates a crimson ladder main as much as a gold star.
“The again is the universe,” he defined, revealing the opposite aspect: his outer area. “The thought is that you’re the universe. The universe is inside.
A few of the items embody haikus, taking part in with the thought of the self. Others consult with “creator and creation”.
“Vogue makes use of the work of artists so much. However how might I do it in a manner that’s my perspective, ? And I’m all the time fascinated about realizing the place artists and artwork are divided. Who’s the individual behind this piece?
A silk high shows a postcard written by Frida Kahlo, whereas linen and cotton shorts deliver to life a letter Pablo Picasso wrote to Gertrude Stein “speaking about her competitiveness for [Henri] Matisse,” Alexander defined. There is a jacket that pays homage to Peter Blake’s “Self-Portrait with Badges,” a portray that Alexander turned fascinated with after seeing it on the Tate when he was a baby.
“That is my David Hockney swimming pool play,” he stated of one other, titled “Splash.” “One other Brit who moved to Los Angeles and have become obsessive about coloration and light-weight.”
“Splash” shirt, $680 and shorts, $590. Coat $1,310, pants $810, tie $160 and yellow shirt $480.
Courtesy of All Below Heaven/PRANOY SARKAR
It is enjoyable, with performance in thoughts. A swimsuit jacket, which makes use of magnets as buttons, could be worn in three other ways, and as a costume, by altering the dimensions and form.
“I like the concept that an individual can select their proportions and find out how to put on one thing,” Alexander stated.
The changes are largely outsized, all the time performed with curved angles.
“They’re kinds that circulation and have room to maneuver,” he stated. “Numerous giant issues have been used to realize energy, , it makes you’re feeling highly effective. Whereas for me, I am extra fascinated about making you’re feeling like a baby.”
jimmy alexander
Courtesy of All Below Heaven/PRANOY SARKAR
He has his subsequent three “chapters” deliberate: “They’re going to be very targeted on sure concepts.”
However first, he is presenting the discharge; together with the “expressions” attire, priced between $610 and $three,400 (t-shirts begin at $180), it is going to characteristic “Blanks by All Beneath Heaven” at a cheaper price, $390 to $980 (“the identical shapes, similar supplies, however simply organically block-printed”).
There are additionally equipment: hats, luggage, ties and necklaces printed in 3D with valuable metals, obtainable in 14 karat gold, sterling silver or plating. They’re formed just like the anatomy of a human coronary heart, the phrase “hear” engraved inside.
“I’ve put every part into this, cash, soul, every part,” he stated of his creations. “Properly, in any case, I’ve fairly a wardrobe.”
“Free as a Chook within the Sky” shirt, $860 and black shorts, $390. Swimsuit jacket, $1,690 and pants, $990.
Courtesy of All Below Heaven/PRANOY SARKAR