We were lucky to catch up with J’wan Morning recently and have shared our conversation below.

J’wan, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I was a student well before I had ever enrolled into my four-year university. That institution is where I fostered all my technical skills of crafting and designing. Before that, my sense of art, fashion, design, and style had already begun cultivating since my childhood whim of noticing and insisting upon my being different than all around me. In being me, I let my experience be my intent and purpose and hit the ground learning to create garments just as big and as long as awful and as awesome. In creating with this in mind, I taught myself from two different worlds: menswear and couture dressmaking. They intercepted, just as my identities of being black and queer. I contrasted corsetry with cargo detailing, work pants with waist-high gowns and created my brand, JWNDON, just as I created myself. The ideas were ever-present, but the execution was and is a never-ending learning curve. I hadn’t actually sewn before college. Which made the majority of my four years, amongst my talented peers, a game of catch up. However, already knowing the scale in which I wanted to create, I bypassed the “basic t-shirt” route and jumped straight into my many [failed] attempts at couture sewing. This trialing kept me restless yet made me resilient and resourceful, and by the time I graduated I was my own fully functional sewing assembly line from initial sketch to final garment.

J’wan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

J’wan Don Morning is a multi-published independent designer, SCAD alumnus, & founder of namesake brand JWNDON. His experience as a queer Black American are by design his constants of inspiration. Since his graduate collection entitled “Why Not Dreams?” he’s fostered a vision of rendering men in lieu of the societal expectation of traditionally masculine expression and has always championed for queer respectability. He’s embarked on a mission to outfit the evolution of men’s fashion, exploring the possibilities of how one could dress the male body, ergo, tailor the experience.

JWNDON is an avant garde menswear brand that is high street, high art, and highbrow. It’s unique approach to menswear is the meeting of two different worlds: streetwear and couture dressmaking, intercepting, same as our identities. The brand juxtaposes masculine detailing with feminine silhouettes to mirror the queer ethos of existing beyond the hum-drum of heteronormativity. JWNDON renders familiar menswear staples, in spite of tradition, expanding upon them in grand and regal fashions that trailblaze towards a progressive and inclusive menswear scape. JWNDON is more than a brand, but a resource, equipping queer people with more of an armor than a crutch.

JWNDON is a multi-featured, commission requested, internationally showcased brand. Since graduating in 2020, J’wan got his start in the scene, doing his very first fashion show a year later. The following year , he had done 4 more. All whilst building a social media presence, networking, and collaborating with local talent. He looks forward to what the future of JWNDON will look like, and what JWNDON will look like for the future of mens’ fashion!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The best way for society to support an artist is to support an artist, anyway you can, as soon as said artist has piqued your interest/admiration. Support takes many forms and each could help an upcoming artist tremendously. Wether that looks like a repost or commission request, it helps ! The ways society doesn’t support artists is by waiting for an artists’ popularity to peek and only then deeming them worthy of public praise. Support the artist you like because you like them and respond to what they create. You might be the only thing keeping them going!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part about being a designer, for me, is the life the garments I create go on to live. I draft 2-dimensionally, develop 3-dimensionally , and create these outer dimensional pieces that inspire larger than life emotes, emotions, and experiences. To wear JWNDON is to slow your stride, hold your head high, and straighten your shoulders. To wear JWNDON is to grant yourself the permission to express every version of you with grace and dignity! Moreover, when my pieces are transferred from my hands to a model’s form or a photographer’s eye they become something else, something new ! For me, that is quite the reward !

Contact Info:

• Instagram: designer: @jwandonmorning brand: @jwndon
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwandon/
• Other: https://www.notjustalabel.com/jwan-morningdon

Image Credits
Photographers: @sunsignprod @ofcoursegreg @41.ai.m @christian__cody @monteesphotos @caz._