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‘Mad Men’ costume designer aims to make ‘every woman feel beautiful’ with size inclusive line

By Justine Browning

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Fashion

It’s rare that a film and television costume designer makes the leap to developing her own fashion line. But Janie Bryant’s immense passion for crafting clothing has led her to achieve such a feat. The Emmy-winner has lent her stylistic vision to Mad Men, Deadwood and the recent series The Romanoffs and has joined forces with brands like Black Halo, Unique Vintage, Maidenform and Banana Republic. Now she has launched JXB, a line of clothing offering an extended size range from 12 to 24.

Serving as a celebration of curvy women, the pieces were inspired by the Mad Men costumes worn by Christina Hendricks’s character Joan Holloway.

“I’ve had so many women say to me, ‘I want to look like Joan. When are you going to make beautiful clothes for us?’ I just heard that over and over again,” she tells FashionUnited. “Those are the women who really inspired me because they are used to not having a lot of choices. Every woman deserves to feel beautiful and to have luxury that’s accessible. It was really important to me to create this line for them.”

Emmy Winner, Janie Bryant, launches extended clothing line

“What I love about my work as a costume designer is that I get to create a whole entire world through the clothing,” she adds. “I always say that my superpower is going back in time but that really is creating a whole fantasy, creating a whole world through costume design. Which, is also based on a character and specific to a character and how I visualize that through the clothing.”

Yet working on her own creations has proven to be a freeing process, without the constraints of time period or being tasked with representing a character.

“With JXB, I wanted to create a collection that was super modern, flirty, feminine, figure-defining – so the intentions are completely different when I’m costume designing for a show,” she adds. “It’s different parts of the brain.”

The JXB by Janie Bryant collection focuses largely on denim, Mongolian cashmere and real leather. As part of the launch, model and activist Marquita Pring is headlining a campaign for the pieces.

While the two-year process of developing JXB called for determination, Bryant found the work far less taxing.

“Costume design is very challenging. It’s probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life,” she shares. “We can have hundreds and hundreds of costumes that also needed to be fitted in costumes head to toe. There can be hundreds of costumes that have to be created just for one episode or one movie. It’s a massive thing.”

She adds, “Creating a collection is different in the way that – you’re creating garments for production but it’s not creating hundreds and hundreds of pieces at one time. It’s men women children of all ages, all shapes and sizes.”

Prior to creating looks for the screen, Bryant studied fashion design at American College of Applied Arts and later worked in both Paris and New York. Yet it was her work on the popular ‘60s set drama that ultimately led success in the design world.

“With the popularity of Mad Men and me being able to design all these collaborations and be able to work with all these fashion companies is such a unique thing,” she shares. “I don’t think most costume designers want to be fashion designers and vice versa. I just happened to love both. I’ve been lucky enough to do both. I’ve wanted to have my own collection, my own brand for a long time and now it’s finally happening. It’s so exciting.”

Photos courtesy of the brand
Janie Bryant
JXB
Mad Men