A Conversation with Couture Designer Henry N. Jackson

Couture designer Henry N. Jackson might as well have been born with a sketch pad, needle and thread in his hand. He started sketching at five and had his first fashion show at 14.

"I had a full collection. I had day and evening wear," he said of his first show and adding that he spent his allowance on Italian Vogue.

Jackson, who showed his latest collection two weeks ago during NY Fashion Week, said his collections have always been about women. He started noticing them because of the "mistakes they make," he said.

"I would want to redesign what they were wearing," he said, laughing.

While Jackson said a lot of women make fashion mistakes, he doesn't have to look far for inspiration. "I see the women going to church around here (Harlem), how well they put things together."

Jackson creates for his audience. He is one of the few couture designers who makes clothes for real-size women and uses them in his fashion shows. When he was working for Valentino, he realized that most women who were ordering the famous Italian designer's clothes were size 10 to 14.

"It's become a stigma that all women (who wear couture) are a size zero," he said.

Jackson promised his mother, who is pear-shaped, that he would dress real-size women. "The women were tall and skinny in my sketches and I would show them to my mother. One day, she asked, 'When are you going to start designing for me and my friends?"

A couple of years ago, it became "fashionable" to acknowledge real-size women, Jackson said. Dove Soap introduced its "Campaign for Real Beauty," where execs are building self esteem in women by using women of all sizes and races in their ads. And in 2006, models with a low body-mass index were banned from Spain's catwalks. But even with it being "fashionable" to accept that the average size women wears a 12 to 14, couture designers certainly weren't letting them strut down their runways.

But Jackson is different. "As a designer, it's my job to be a visionary," he said, adding that most of his clients wear between a 10 and 16. He doesn't use plus-size models in his shows, because "the body can do anything" at that size, he said, referring to proportions.

Some of the most famous real-size women Jackson has dressed include Oprah Winfrey and Whoppi Goldberg. And the next real-size women he's expected to dress is First Lady Michelle Obama.

Winfrey first mentioned the Obamas to Jackson when President Barack Obama was a senator in Chicago. Jackson, who was living in Paris at the time, thought it would be nice to dress a senator's wife, so he started following Mrs. Obama's looks. While following First Lady Obama's fashion, he was also following President Obama's political gains. He used his network from Harvard University, where Jackson studied business before graduating from Parsons: The School for Design, to connect with the First Couple, who are Harvard graduates.

Once the connection was made, the First Lady picked a few items from Jackson's look book, asked for the prices and timeline. He hopes to do a fitting this week, while the Obamas are in Manhattan for the UN events. Jackson said Mrs. Obama initially selected a tailored jacket and sleeveless shift dress, but she later asked for some separates.

Jackson said he wasn't surprised with what Mrs. Obama chose because he was tracking what she was wearing. "She chose the clothes I designed for her," he said with a laugh.

Jackson said the all of the looks aren't one of a kind, but that's the First Lady's style - to wear clothes that everyone wears, like those from J. Crew. He also said it's her style to not wear one designer head-to-toe, which he said no lady should ever wear.

Other advice he said women should follow is to "be a lady. Have some class in the way you dress. You dress for where you want to be in life. We've forgotten what taste looks like."

"Less is more," he added.

And "always quality over quantity."

"Don't buy every trend. Build a wardrobe that can evolve," advised.

Writer's Note: I first met Henry N. Jackson a couple of weeks ago when I volunteered as a dresser in his fashion show during NY Fashion Week. I immediately knew there was something special about him. His collection was ethnically couture and sophisticated. Last week, I reached out to Jackson, explaining that I have a fashion blog and would love to interview him. He graciously agreed. I met with him yesterday at his home in Harlem.