Interview by Robert Joseph Sheckler
Writeup by Leah Whalen
J.M. Syron is a multidisciplinary artist who works in multiple media, including wood, metal, and fabric. Primarily designing in leather, he creates silhouettes that he describes as “everyday art wear”: pieces that can be worn comfortably but that also make a statement. He believes that our clothing has a unique power to transform our society: “When we choose to change our outer appearance, we begin to change the traditional societal models and beliefs that bind our lives.” He envisions a future where, as he puts it, “a non-binary world is free of racism, sexism, and homophobia.”
His path to fashion was a circuitous one, although he emphasizes that he grew up in a family of creatives. His mother was, he says, a master sewer with a dedicated studio in her basement; his sister is likewise a master sewer whose encouragement (and sometimes critiques) he relied upon when beginning to sew professionally. Art was always important to Syron. In high school, he gravitated to the art room to draw and create — and also because, as he says, “The most interesting girls were in the art room!” He has also been a devoted dancer since the age of 12, and in college his focus turned to modern dance, which remains a passion. He still dances four to five times a week, and considerations of how fabric will move on a dancing body inform part of his STITCH collection.
Syron began his professional career as a woodworker. When he met his partner, fellow artist Bonnie Bishoff, in 1987, they began making furniture together. But their creative practices soon expanded; they began to add polymer clay elements to their carved wooden furniture, and explored metal working. As he recalls, 2010 marked a turning point: feeling burned out by furniture making, he moved toward creating sculptural objects because he wanted to do something that was purely artistic in its intention.
The couple moved to Maine in 2013. After making metal and polymer jewelry for a runway show where Bonnie designed the apparel, Syron found himself longing to make clothes himself. He had leather left over from upholstery work; he notes that it “felt similar to wood because of its weight, so it was comfortable to work with immediately, versus, for example, silk.” He also found that it was easy to develop his sensibilities for apparel pattern making from having practiced furniture pattern making.
At STITCH on June 4th, Syron will be showing mostly leather jackets on the runway, with some pants in the mix too. He also notes that, in line with his dance practice, he will have a few pieces made of mesh that will move dynamically as they are worn. The J.M. Syron style market booth will have a selection of jackets for purchase as well as his partner Bonnie’s jewelry. All will showcase his signature pierced and slashed leather, which is, he says, his way of “sharing the outside on the inside, making things both powerful and vulnerable.”
Find Johnny Syron online: