One of the most successful Czech fashion designers, who is gradually putting Czech and Slovak fashion on the world map. Jan Černý, who is known for his iconic crossed-out jan logo or the Rorschach test motif found in his collections, has already accomplished a lot in his relatively short career.
The talented young Czech became famous just a few years ago at the Prague fashion week and since then he has been slowly but surely walking towards the imaginary fashion Olympus. He was recently nominated for the Czech Grand Design award in the Fashion Designer of the Year category, the world media writes about him, and Forbes magazine even included him in the 30 under 30 list.
Jan also had an internship at Louis Vuitton, where he managed to impress one of the most renowned designers today, Virgil Abloh. In addition, he also became the creative director of the Czech brand Kara. "Designers in our region can compete even with world fashion houses. We only lack their huge capitals," he reveals in an interview.
Even though almost every industry was affected by the pandemic last year, you didn't stop and in September you came up with the collection for spring and summer 2021. Did it help you that the whole world seemed to slow down?
You can say it that way. We experienced the whole pandemic much more in the spring than in the fall. At least that's how I perceived it. In the spring, I often went to nature, to the cottage with friends, and I didn't even want to spend time in the city at all. I was very careful. That slowdown happened earlier in my personal life. I hardly enjoyed the summer, I was working in the studio all the time until the September show.
Did the coronavirus affect the collection itself?
Yes, especially from a visual point of view. Precisely because I spent a lot of time in nature and suddenly people found the city more dangerous, the collection was also in the "back to the roots" style, returning to the roots of the romantic era.
According to your words, young people are gradually turning away from technology and it draws them to nature. In recent seasons, however, many global designers are inclined towards tech wear and functional pieces. Isn't that the opposite?
One thing is the aesthetics of the given pieces, another thing is functionality. This does not have to be ruled out in principle. I also like tech wear, I also have some nylon pieces that are functional and I use them in the collections. For me, however, the message was rather conceptual, that people are drawn more to nature again.
Speaking of nature, do you care about your collections being ecological and made from sustainable materials?
I think about it a lot and often. I think that just the way we, local designers here in the Czech Republic, create, that we do it in small quantities, from local and high-quality materials, can be considered sustainable fashion. We don't have warehouses full of goods and the waste in the production of our pieces is really minimal.
The ROMANTIC ERA 2021+ collection is dominated by colorful models, playful cuts and batik pieces. Do you consider her your most successful?
I always consider the latest collection to be the most successful (laughs). When I create a collection, I don't just care about the individual pieces, but I think about the overall emotions and experiences that the collection and the show will cause in people. I am very happy with this last show, which was able to create an atmosphere, even with the location by the Vltava on Veslařské ostrov. It was in Prague, but suddenly you were in nature, where there is silence, by the water, you feel the closeness of that nature, the sun was setting and music was playing. It was quite touching.
Various important world media wrote about her, for example Hypebeast is worth mentioning. How do you perceive it?
I take it as a very pleasant satisfaction for the fact that when you work intensively on something and put your heart into it, sooner or later results appear that would have seemed unreal to me a few years ago.
Do you think that the world is becoming more and more interested in Czech-Slovak fashion?
It's hard to say, because there are so many fashion collections around the world. That attention is slowly dissipating and everyone is looking for what is closest to them. I believe that they want to write about it because they have readers who are interested, but I would not generalize that the world media is interested in Czech-Slovak fashion. It's very subjective. They mostly write about what those particular editors like.
Can Czech and Slovak designers compete with global fashion houses?
I think that design and processing for sure. Even during my internship at Louis Vuitton, I understood that if you have that creativity, you have to be able to grasp it and learn from yourself. No one else will teach you your handwriting, you have to improve yourself and move forward. You either have it or you don't.
However, the difference is that Czech designers cannot compete with global fashion houses in this huge business. They have huge capitals, thanks to which they are able to pour incredible amounts of money into the development and production of new things, as well as into advertising and massive campaigns. But we can definitely compete with world designers with design and products as such. If it is well and qualitatively technologically sewn and processed.
You mentioned the internship at Louis Vuitton, which you did during 2019. How do you perceive this experience now that time has passed?
It's still unbelievable to me. The only thing I was afraid of when I went there was that the collective would be bad, condescending and that they would not accept me among them, as it is often portrayed in various films about fashion. However, it was the exact opposite, the team was very professional and within a few days we found a common language. They understood that I also know something and can help them, so I was able to establish great relationships with them quite quickly. It was a great experience.
At the time, you mentioned to me that when Virgil Abloh saw your sneakers from the PRESTIGE X JAN collection, he immediately wanted to wear them. You gave him one pair. Does he wear them?
What will you learn after unlocking?