Peter Jensen (fashion designer)

Background

Jensen initially studied graphic design, embroidery and tailoring at The Royal Danish Academy of Design in Copenhagen before moving to London in 1997 to undertake an MA in menswear at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. He graduated with a distinction in 1999 and formed his eponymous menswear label immediately afterwards, subsequently also introducing womenswear. Jensen has regularly shown his collections on the main schedule at London Fashion Week, upon the catwalk and in the form of installations, in a variety of venues. These venues range from Milk Studios New York (2011), ICA Institute for Contemporary Art London (2010), Radiohuset Copenhagen (2008), Queens Ice Bowl London (2005) and Galerie Nikki Diana Marquardt Paris (2001). Jensen's designs are stocked in a variety of prestigious stores and boutiques in over twenty countries on five continents. These include Colette in Paris, 10 Corso Como in Milan, Opening Ceremony in L.A, Tokyo and New York, B-store and Dover Street Market in London, Side by Side in Tokyo, and UK Style in Moscow.

Jensen and his design team work in a studio based in Dalston, East London. The designer lives with his long-term partner in Primrose Hill, in North London, in an apartment full of classic Scandinavian furniture, as well as his extensive collections of cushions and books.

Artistic work method

Jensen's designs are known for being inventive, playful, colourful and well-made. In terms of inspiration, his work is characterised by a unique mixture of popular culture references and often makes reference to infamous or cult figures. Jensen's women's wear collections are consistently inspired by and named after a female Muse - though Jensen avoids obvious style icons, instead homing-in on popular culture's more marginal or complex females, who are as likely to be eccentric, wanton or even criminal, as they are heroic or overtly chic. As the designer has confirmed, I like to base my collections on strong-headed women. (The Independent).

His muses have so far included, among others, Hollywood actress Mary Miles Minter, American photographer Tina Barney, the character Candice Marie from the Mike Leigh film, Nuts In May, Carrie-era Sissy Spacek, disgraced Olympic ice skater Tonya Harding, John Waters' actress Mink Stole, the legendary Helena Rubinstein, collector and more Gertrude Stein, artist Cindy Sherman, singer Nina Simone and even Jensen's own Auntie Jytte, an ardent lover of fashion in the 1970s who ran a chip shop and taxi company in Nuuk, Greenland.

When Jensen introduced his well-received debut resort collection in late 2009, it combined his popular rabbit logo with typically left-of-centre references to a 1963 photograph, Triplets, taken by the controversial US photographer Diane Arbus.

Critics' comments

Jensen has consistently received considerable industry support from many of the most respected international fashion critics, editors and writers:

Harriet Quick, Vogue: Cleverly conceived, quirkily humorous clothes.... both distinctive and of the moment. (www.vogue.co.uk)

Sarah Mower, Style.com: The light-hearted Peter Jensen experience has become a moment to cherish. Jensen’s clothes never seem to be overly styled, but ... capture the gist of things without seeming to try. (www.style.com)

Women’s Wear Daily: A breath of fresh air... Jensen offers the cool basics that every girl should have in her wardrobe. (www.wwd.com)

James Anderson, ponystep.com In the case of his womenswear, specifically, the stylistic inspiration he has routinely drawn from infamous female spirits such as actress Sissy Spacek, artist Cindy Sherman or disgraced Olympic ice skater Tanya Harding, for example, have always ensured that both the reference points and overall results are appealingly left-of-centre yet always wearable. (www.ponystep.com)

Tim Blanks, Style.com: The challenge of how best to show their clothes is inspiring more and more designers to spectacularly creative flights of fancy. Peter Jensen's collaboration with the American artist Laurie Simmons produced one of the most enjoyably bizarre—and bizarrely complex—presentations to date.

i-D: Creatively and technically brilliant... visually and conceptually captivating. (www.i-dmagazine.co.uk)

Susannah Frankel, The Independent: Witty, pretty, proudly individual and imaginative in the extreme. (www.independent.co.uk)

Fans

Famous fans of Jensen's designs include pop stars Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Nina Persson from The Cardigans, Kanye West and The Zutons’ Abi Harding. High-profile actresses among his customer base include Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Lena Dunham, Dakota Fanning, Sofie Gråbøl, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Nicole Kidman and Lindsay Lohan. Legendary film maker John Waters has also expressed his admiration for Jensen’s work and various designs from the SS/08 Mink collection - inspired by Waters' celluloid stalwart Mink Stole - now form part of the John Waters Archive at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA.

Collaborations

Jensen has successfully undertaken a number of high-profile collaborative projects during his career. He has worked with high street fashion chain Topshop, Topman, as well as Fred Perry on the brand's recurring Blank Canvas project, in which Jensen re-worked the iconic Harrington jacket as part of a capsule collection. The designer has also collaborated with other brands including Ebonyivory, Weekday, Fable, Buddahood, Beam Tokyo plus the award-winning B Store.

Åbäke, the world-famous graphic group, and Jensen have a long working relationship, which include them designing every invitation for all the shows, the prints from the SS03 (Olga) and SS04 (Gertrude) and the jacket from SS02 (Mildred), which has been named "the Maki Jacket" after one of the four Åbäkers.

For spring/summer 2009, Jensen notably unveiled a capsule women’s range exclusively for London’s Dover Street Market, which utilized archive prints originally produced for the designer by Shona Heath. For autumn/winter 2009/10, he collaborated with photographer Tim Walker on a site-specific installation that played host to a capsule women’s collection - featuring prints inspired by images in Walker’s remarkable book, Tim Walker Pictures.

Spring/summer 2010 saw Jensen introducing an affordable range of men’s and women’s capsule collections, launched in collaboration with Scandinavian brand, Weekday, of Cheap Monday fame. Jensen won rave reviews for his Spring/Summer 2010 womenswear collection and presentation, which arose as a result of his collaboration with US artist Laurie Simmons. Inspired by her photographs, Jensen initially designed the clothes in scaled-down 'doll' sizes, prior to Simmons photographing them in her customary doll's house environments. The resulting images were thereafter enlarged back to life size, and the results were shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, to a backdrop of Simmons' images.

For spring/summer 2014, Jensen worked with the artist illustrator Julie Verhoeven on a series of print inspired by the iconic American singer Diana Ross.

In February 2016, Jensen launched a collaboration with popular handbag/travel company LeSportsac.

Distinctions

Since 2001 head of Menswear, MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, since 2005 judge, BA Fashion Design Awards, same place. Since 2006 associate lecturer, BA, Fashion Menswear at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, London, and since 2005 member of Faculty of Design Industry Advisory Committee same place. Censor for Degree students at Designskolen Kolding, Denmark (2007) and TEKO Design and Business School, Herning, Denmark (2008 and 2010). Received the three-year Work Grant form the Danish Arts Council (2009) and honored with the award Sølvsmed Kay Bojesen og hustru Erna Bojesens Mindelegat (2011) and the Magasin du Nords Fond (2012).

Special projects

To mark the 10-year anniversary of Peter Jensen Ltd, Dent-de-Leone Publishers released a comprehensive book 2011 edited by Åbäke, Jensen and Gerard Wilson, with essays by Susannah Frankel and Emily King (ISBN 978-1-907908-04-0). Further, Jensen has participated in various exhibitions and these ought to be mentioned: 27 March 2013, fashion show and exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield Museum (with hats designed by Bernstock Speirs). Outfits from the 2005-collection 'Fanny' and the 2009-collection 'Jytte' were 2013 included in the permanent exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). Exhibition at the House of Voltaire London 21 November to 15 December 2012 (together with among others Jeremy Deller, Mark Leckey, Ryan McGinley, Richard Nicoll, Peter Pilotto, Elizabeth Price, Jonathan Saunders, Laurie Simmons, Wolfgang Tillmans). Solo presentation at the Victoria & Albert Museum London as part of the programme Fashion in Motion 18 November 2011. Group exhibition Reconstruction: Cultural Heritage and the Making of Contemporary Fashion (with among others Vivienne Westwood and Hussein Chalayan) arrangered by The British Council and touring in Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Bangladesh (2011). Solo exhibition at the Designmuseum Denmark 5 August 2011 to 30 October 2011, the title of the exhibition: Peter Jensen's Muses. Online project 9 September 2010 to 30 October 2010, In Wolves Clothing Re-imagining the Doll together with visual artist Laurie Simmons.

Muses

Jensen's collections are consistently inspired by and named after a Muse. They are:

AW 01-02 'Minter' - Mary Miles Minter was an American silent film actress. She died in 1984.

SS 2002 'Mildred' - is the character that Bette Davis played in the 1934 American film Of Human Bondage.

AW 02-03 'Emma' - is the English fashion designer Emma Cook.

SS 2003 'Olga' - Olga Korbut was a Russian gymnast, famous for her 1972 OL-performance.

AW 03-04 'Nancy' - Nancy Mitford was an English author, famous for her book The Pursuit of Love and being the eldest of the Mitford sisters.

SS 2004 'Gertrude' - Gertrude Stein, a rich and influential American art collector who lived in Paris, died in 1946.

AW 04-05 'Cindy' - American artist Cindy Sherman.

SS 2005 'Tonya' - Tonya Harding, the American ice-skater, famous for an attack on rival ice skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1994.

AW 05-06 'Fanny' - A fictional character from the Ingmar Bergman film Fanny och Alexander.

SS 2006 'Sissy' - Sissy Spacek is an American actress, famous for her roles in the films Badlands (1973), Carrie (1976) and Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).

AW 06-07 'Helena' - Helena Rubinstein died in 1965 as one of the richest women in the world due to her beauty product.

SS 2007 'Tina' - Tina Barney is an American photographer, mostly photographing her own family.

AW 07-08 'Christina' - Princess Christina of Denmark was the 3rd child of King Christian the 2nd of Denmark. She died in 1590.

SS 2008 'Mink' - Mink Stole has been part of all the John Waters films since 1969.

AW 08-09 'Candice-Marie' - Candice-Marie is the character in the Mike Leigh film Nuts in May played by the actress Alison Steadman.

AW 08-09 'Keith'- Keith is the character in the Mike Leigh film Nuts in May played by the actor Roger Sloman.

SS 2009 'Jodie' - Jodie Foster is an American actress.

AW 09-10 'Jytte' - Jytte is Peter Jensen's aunt, who lived for years in Greenland.

Resort 2010 'Diana' - Diana Arbus was an American photographer.

SS 2010 'Laurie' - Laurie Simmons is an American artist and photographer.

AW 10-11 'Muriel' - Dame Muriel Spark is a Scottish novelist, most famous for her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Resort 2011 'Abigail' - Based on Mike Leigh's film Abigail's Party.

SS 2011 'Shelley' - Shelley Duvall is an American actress, the star of the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining.

AW 11-12 'Anna-Karina' - Anna Karina (Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer) born in Denmark, but found fame as a French actress in Jean-Luc Godard films.

Resort 2012 'Meryl' - Meryl Streep is an American actress.

SS 2012 'Bush' - Thomas Bush is an English graphic designer.

SS 2012 'Nina' - Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist. She died in 2003.

Prefall 2012 'Erika' - Erika Wall is a Swedish model.

AW 12-13 'Thelma' - Thelma Speirs has been part of the London club scene since the 1980s, she is also one half of the hat company Bernstock-Speirs.

Resort 2013 'Tippi' - Tippi Hedren is famous for playing the lead in the Alfred Hitchcock films The Birds and Marnie.

SS 2013 'Mick' - Mick Jagger is an English singer, member of the Rolling Stones.

SS 2013 'Barbara' - Barbara Hepworth was an English sculptor.

Pre-AW 13-24 'Arne' - Arne Jacobsen was a world-famous Danish architect.

AW 13-14 'Viv' - Vivian Nicholson said "Spend, spend, spend" in 1961 when she won the pools in England.

Resort 2014 'Paulette' - Paulette Goddard was an American actress in the 1930s and became a very rich lady. She would later hang out in the Factory with Andy Warhol.

SS 2014 'Andy' - Andy Warhol was an American pop artist, famous for a lot of things but mostly his silk prints.

SS 2014 'Diana' - Diana Ross is an American singer.

Pre-fall 14 'Sunny' - Sunny von Bülow, most famous today for having been in a coma for 28 years. She was an American heiress. Glenn Close played her in the film Reversal of Fortune.

AW 2014 'Claus' - Claus von Bülow. Married to Sunny von Bülow. Born and bread in Denmark. Famous for being first found guilty and then cleared for having tried to killed Sunny von Bülow.

Resort 15 'Yoko' - Yoko Ono is a famous visual Fluxus artist. Married to John Lennon. Still working today.

SS 2015 'Lucy' - Lucy is the lead girl in Peanuts. Drawn by Charles Schulz in 1952.

Pre-fall 15 'Penelope' - Penelope Tree became famous for wearing a very sexy Betsey Johnson-dress to the Thurman Carpote Black and White Ball in 1966.

AW 2015 'Julia' - Princess Julia became famous in the late 1970s and through the 1980s for her part in the London club-scene.

Resort 16 'Enid' - Enid is the main character in the comic book Ghostworld, which was made into a cult film in 2001 starring Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson.

SS 2016 'Shirley' - Shirley Kurata is a LA based stylist whom Peter Jensen has worked with for years and years. She has also done a Prada film with Autumn de Wilde.

AW 16-17 'Peggy' - Peggy Guggenheim was an American heiress who spend all her money on art and lovers.