Abigail Glaum-Lathbury and Maura Brewer's Fashion Garment Project Gathers Interest

JUMPSUIT, the recent fashion project of Fashion, Body, and Garment faculty member Abigail Glaum-Lathbury (BFA 2006) and Whitney Museum Fellow Maura Brewer (BFA 2006), is gathering attention for the revolutionizing concepts that govern its single-item line. JUMPSUIT, as an “ungendered monogarment for everyday wear,” comes in 48 sizes and two colors, black and white, with a choice of long or short sleeves. There have been several stories about the project, starting with an account in the New York Times of a guerrilla performance Glaum-Lathbury and Brewer staged at Lincoln Center during fashion week. The Times refers to JUMPSUIT as a “tempting proposition.”

The Columbia Chronicle also featured the project, which poses provocative questions to the fashion industry’s fast pace. This experiment in counter-fashion, consisting of a pre-made garment to purchase or open source pattern to download for free, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of its jumpsuits. The origins and goals of the project are inspired by the spirit of feminist dress reform that dates back to Victorian Era in England. As the Columbia Journalist articulates, “the immediate goal is to get people wearing jumpsuits, but the project is really about inspiring a dialogue about rethinking fashion. JUMPSUIT is about rejecting choice, and the idea that clothes define the man.”

JUMPSUIT’s ultimate conceptual ambition is to purchase a full-page ad in Vogue, which costs about $150,000. For the duo, this visibility would represent complete infiltration of the fashion establishment. Says Glaum-Lathbury, “the product is a vehicle for producing conversation, but if it becomes some sort of cultural movement, some sort of larger cultural thing, then we win. If Vogue does allow us to have this advertisement, then the movement will not need to be anymore. It’s in the hands of everybody else.”

Image of Abigail Glaum-Lathbury and Ama Iromuanya (BFA 2016) by Lara Kastner