Dear friends,
Over the years, many of you have written to ask—sometimes passionately—why I no longer make the menswear you remember: the jacquard cotton shirts, knits, sueded pieces, and all the deeply crafted garments that defined my earlier work. I understand the question, and I feel it too. Those pieces mattered to me as much as they did to you.
So I wanted to explain, fully and honestly, why I can’t do what I once did.
When my financial partner pulled out and I closed my clothing business, much of the specialized equipment I relied on in Japan was dismantled or repurposed soon after. Many of the mills had built custom loom setups, weave structures, and production workflows specifically for my work. Once the line ended, those capabilities disappeared. Even if I wanted to remake those garments today, many of the techniques quite literally no longer exist.
I’ve also changed structurally. I no longer have a fashion company or a staff. Today it’s just me and Adrian. Running a full apparel operation—fabric development, sampling, grading, sizing, inventory, shipping, returns, seasons—simply isn’t possible for us.
That said, I want you to know this: I do still dream up new ventures—constantly. Sometimes nightly. Most recently, I found myself imagining throws made with one of my Japanese weavers: buying the fabric, cutting and finishing them myself, something intimate and manageable. But reality always intervenes.
For example, I could realistically place orders only every two or three years—similar to how I handle my socks—because it takes that long to sell through inventory. And business has to work for both sides. My suppliers need consistent volume to survive. In the case of my sock manufacturer, he decided—after stopping twice—that his employees genuinely loved making my socks, and so he was willing to continue. Even then, I buy the yarn myself and warehouse all the inventory. The only reason that model works at all is because socks have no sizes, no seasons, and no fit issues.
That’s why throws briefly seemed promising. But even there, success would require marketing—significantly expanding my reach to move product faster. And here’s the honest truth: marketing is the part of the business I always disliked the most. That tension—between creative joy and promotional effort—makes many of these ideas not worth pursuing for me at this stage of my life.
This brings me to Printify.
The Printify model works logistically. I can place my designs on their blanks, and they handle production, inventory, fulfillment, and shipping. That’s why I can still put new work into the world without rebuilding a company from scratch.
But there are real limitations. I have no control over fit, construction, or most aspects of quality. I’ve spent a great deal of money sampling dozens and dozens of products to see which ones are acceptable by my standards. A few are. Most are not. And now, with tariffs increasing costs and many higher-quality blanks being discontinued, even that small pool is shrinking.
And yes—I hate making polyester garments. I always have. Unfortunately, digital printing still works best on synthetic fibers, which is why cotton is largely unavailable in this model. Even when the business structure fits my limited resources, the materials often don’t fit my aesthetic.
So when you see something new from me today, please understand: it represents a careful negotiation between what I can do, what I enjoy doing, what I can manage without staff, and what allows me to stay creatively active without rebuilding the machinery—literal and figurative—of a fashion house.
I remain deeply grateful that so many of you still care enough to ask, to remember, and to collect the work I made decades ago. That work mattered. It still does. And knowing it continues to be worn, cherished, and even hunted for is incredibly meaningful to me.
Warmly,
Jhane
P.S.
For those of you searching for earlier pieces, many of my original menswear designs—shirts, knits, jackets—surface from time to time on eBay, often from longtime collectors.
18 comments
Thank you for taking time to offer some insights on this topic. I enjoy your products and will be happy to own/see anything you have to offer. Future best wishes,
Hi Jhane, I have had many of your shirts over the years, mostly from The West End Shop at The Hudsons Bay store flagship store (now gone) in downtown Toronto. They are beautiful and always recieve compliments. The socks I purchased from your online shop in the past, and in the last few years have picked up…five of the throws, which also recive complimnets at our lakehouse. As others have mentioned, nothing touches these Japanese weaves and your print shirts, nothing. My next project is by keeping the jackards in the closet, they are going to be fashioned into a quilt. When that happens, I will send you a snapshot. How else can I preserve these fabrics for others to appreciate?
All the best and thank you for your creativity and imagination.
A lot of my shirts are made in St. James, London from some of the finest fabrics to be had. Not a single time has anyone ever commented on them. But every time I wear one of my Jhane Barnes shirts, people talk about it. Every time.
I understand that things change and infrastructure is lost. I understand that the business of being in business has some miserable consequences and I respect your not wanting to deal with that anymore. But for the time you were, you created some of the finest shirts I have ever worn.
I now buy them on eBay and other sites when they come up. And I’ll continue to do so until they are all gone forever. If you ever did go back to making shirts, I’d be among the first in line. Thank you for sharing your talents with us.
Jesse
Aloha Jhane,
I have been a fan – no a Jhane Barnes enthusiast since the 80’s. (Maybe early 90’s?). I started buying your shirts at Nordstrom in Walnut Creek CA until you opened up a store across the street. And then I switched to buying your shirts and sweaters and jackets and pants there. Over the years I have collected literally hundreds of your apparel. At one point my wife and I were on a shopping theatre trip to NYC and I was in the Jhane Barnes department of Sacks Fifth Avenue. I was telling the clerk about my love affair with your apparel and he offered to arrange a visit with you at your office which was just a few blocks away. He said Jhane always appreciated meeting her customers. He arranged it and we immediately went over to your office where you warmly greeted us and spent literally a couple hours with us chatting and showing us around and explaining your digital design process with proprietary software. You gifted us a large poster that was just a sample print out of one of your designs which you signed and put in a shipping tube for us to bring home. We still enjoy that piece of art today. We retired on the Big Island in Hawaii to be close to our grandchildren and during the move I gifted most of my wardrobe to friends and family. I saved a few of the pieces that I wear when we visit the cool weather mainland. For me, sometimes just seeing a few of the articles hanging in my closet and certainly when I wear them is like going home. I am 73 years old and I feel warmed by an old friend when I just glance at a favorite shirt. I want you to know that your work has made a meaningful difference in my life and continues to do so all these years later. If you ever find yourself on Big Island I would love to share with you my passion project. I am growing cacao and making chocolate and I feel like I make every decision with the same care and love that you did in imagining and producing the products that you have offered the world all these years. I send you now much aloha and gratitude for being you. Funny how we can impact others lives in ways that we may never know. You have impacted my life and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Marty
We also have fond memories of your great clothing. Totally understand the challenges in creating them today We are enjoying some of your new products and hope you continue to produce creative and beautiful products.