A Feel For Fashion: Jay Tibbitts

Where do you look for new ideas or voices in fashion?

I’m really in love with the Threads fashion community right now, mainly because it’s a great way to see how everyday people and not only “fashion insiders” are thinking about collections and fashion news. Some of the most interesting perspectives right now are coming from people who otherwise would not have a very much visibility in the fashion conversation. 

In this attention economy, what or who has won over your attention right now?

Anything that doesn’t feel archetypal. The attention economy encourages virality and quick legibility, but oftentimes that's not the most new, innovative, or unexpected thing. Anyone or anything that makes me wonder or is not immediately clear to me keeps my attention.

AI will continue to impact how we live and work. What excites you and what concerns you?

We’re living through a moment that feels comparable to the Industrial Revolution, except now technology is transforming cognitive labour instead of manual labour. What excites me is the access to information and possibility. What concerns me, especially for younger generations, is the temptation to outsource too much thinking to machines. The ability to think through problems and find solutions via trial and error are huge parts of the human experience and are muscles you build over time.

How do you think fashion can spark and sustain desire with so much else going on in the world?

I actually think that because there is so much going on in the world, it’s more important than ever for fashion to bring joy and desire to people. We need more moments to just simply feel good. 

Do you have an industry story or experience that you have never talked about?

Well there’s probably a good reason why I’ve never talked about it… but let’s just say that EVERYTHING is being discussed “off the record” amongst folks at fashion week dinners or in between shows. 

Do trends still matter?

Trends will always matter because they help people collectively understand what feels relevant or culturally important at a given moment. What’s changed is that culture is so much more fragmented. Instead of one dominant trend flowing from the top down, you now have countless micro-communities. The authority and power of a singular trend is getting more and more challenging to achieve.

What stands out as the most potentially disruptive influence on fashion on the horizon?

The current k-shaped economy. The fashion industry at large can increasingly reflect the widening divide between the haves and have-nots, becoming a symbol for the growing frustration around these issues. This can have real business impact and affects everything from brands' consumer targets, merchandising efforts, storytelling, and the idea of “aspiration” as a whole.  It also creates a challenge as consumers are often pulled toward either ultra-accessible fast fashion or extreme luxury, while the middle segment is lost.   

If you could change one aspect of how we experience fashion today, what would it be?

While so much of fashion conversation is driven by aesthetics, I’d love for broader discourse around it to be more layered. Fashion intersects with politics, history, gender, psychology, and cultural identity, yet the conversation is too often reduced to “That’s pretty.” 

Tell us something surprising about how you got to where you are today?

I definitely entered fashion through a somewhat unconventional path and a healthy dose of delusion, audacity, and consistency. Something that often surprises people is my education and formal background are actually in global business strategy and consumer insights, not specifically fashion. I currently work as a Strategy Director in healthcare advertising and in the past have worked across industries like financial services, hospitality tech, and CPG. These may all seem very opposed to fashion, but I bring a particular way of thinking to my fashion work which has proven to be a unique perspective I think people are missing in their fashion information consumption. 

What has been a highlight of your career so far?

One of the most surreal parts of this journey has been having people I admired for years, editors, designers, creatives, etc. approach me and say they genuinely enjoy my work. But equally meaningful is hearing from people who never considered themselves “fashion people” tell me my content made the industry feel more accessible or understandable to them.

Is there any fashion show — no matter how far back — that you would have loved to attend?

It’s such a cliche answer… but McQueen Spring ‘99. The image of Shalom Harlow standing between those spray-painting robots is an image not only cemented in the fashion world, but also broader culture. We’re still referencing it almost 20 years later. 

What is one positive objective or goal that you would like to see the industry work towards?

I’d love for the fashion industry to reconsider the speed at which it moves. The pace of the fashion calendar, the number of collections, and the constant demand for novelty are a bit of a disservice to everyone involved. Designers are overworked, consumers are encouraged to overconsume, and the industry professionals are ingesting too much to fully process. At the end of the day if you are seeing everything… you’re seeing nothing. 

This interview has been lightly edited.