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Title:
Interviewed by Carl Kalonzo, C. Yohance DeLoatch
Avirex CEO Jackie Clyman is kind enough to have
a sit-down with FashionLedge.com in Avirex’s
New York showroom. She begins by explaining that
Avirex has just recently designed the interior of
the Lincoln Aviator vehicle.
Jackie Clyman: We [brought] the Lincoln
Aviator car to the show - - the Magic show. A
company that does detailing on cars and grills
contacted us. They needed someone to do the design
of the interior. The car has been featured at
the car show recently.
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Is
this a special edition?
JC: Yes, it is a little bit smaller, and
maybe less savvy than the Navigator. It is harder
to market but The Source or Vibe listed it as
one of the classier or coolest cars coming out.
And so it is interesting that we had a hand in
redesigning the interior.
You
had it inside at Magic?
JC: Yeah at south end.
Does Avirex
want to do more of this kind of work?
JC: Absolutely - - it was really interesting
for us. Our strongest suit is designing graphics
- - we do this the best. We actually made a jacket
to go with the Aviator. (Calls out to see if there
is a sample around, but there is none). The jacket
has the names of companies involved and we made
a cap to go with it. It was really an interesting
project.
What does
Avirex mean? |
JC: King of aviation.
Jeff Clyman who is Founder and President, and my
husband - - gotta sleep with the president (laughs)
- - is a pilot and was always interested in everything
that had to do with old airplanes and WWII clothing
because he felt that it was really very typical
for what America was great for. You know, a lot
of beautiful clothing that was practical and was
extraordinary in quality.
He had all these jackets from his father who was
a flight surgeon, in other words he was a doctor
and a pilot, and his uncle was a fighter pilot in
WWII. So there is this real admiration for those
days. That is what started the company because after
a while he realized that all those jackets disappeared
and he wanted to keep all that [tradition] alive
- - through clothing. That is something key to the
brand that is hard to always bring across to some
people: the clothing that Avirex makes really in
one way or another, most of it anyway, is historical.
A lot of it is meant to bring alive some portion
of history.
This is why we were the first company to do something
with the Tuskegee Airmen. We wanted to bring them
recognition through clothing. We associated ourselves
with one of the Tuskegee Airmen chapters in Washington
State. Jeff being a pilot knew the history of African-American
pilots in WWII - - who were absolutely extraordinary
pilots by the way and were never recognized until
very recently.
Yeah
there is a movie about them.
JC: That movie came out after. For their
chapter we made a special jacket, which has the
names of all the Tuskegee Airmen that ever lived.
It was a really special, special jacket and of
course we couldn’t sell commercially and
wouldn’t - - it was specifically for their
chapter.
This
ties in beautifully with your desire to bring
history alive!
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JC: Correct.
The other side of that that most people do not know
is that we started Jeff Bean Pilot and owning airplanes,
which happen to be WWII airplanes. They are not
just airplanes that go from one place to another.
Again, we wanted to share that part of history with
the rest of the world and started a museum out in
Long Island at Republic Airport.
Is
it an Avirex museum?
JC: It’s
the American Airpilot Museum, which is sponsored
by a number of companies, among them us - - and
of course ourselves particularly since most of
the airplanes belong to us. |
Avirex
is looked upon as being one of the oldest running
“urban” lines. When you started, did
you set yourself up to be an urban line?
JC: This is a question that is always
asked and I am very flattered that you should
call us one of the first. I think Cross Colors
came before us and they folded which was very
unfortunate. No we didn’t, we have been
around since 1975. Coming back to what I started
to say, we have always wanted to make classic
American apparel [with] high quality [and] very
detailed and again somehow historically important
in some way.
And from the beginning we started with the aviation
military replica type wearing apparel and went
on to other classic American apparel such as varsity
stadium, the collegiate look of the 30’s
40’s 50’s and 60’s. We drew
inspiration from that and we were the first to
come out with it in the 80’s. But of course
we weren’t going to copy or use things or
names that did not belong to us - - we are very
careful about that. We used brand names and graphics
that we interpreted from some of the old graphics.
I would say that in the early 90’s some
of the recording artists picked up on it and probably
the first was Fat Joe.
Was that
kind of like the Hilfiger phenomenon
JC: Absolutely.
Other artists picked up on it after Fat Joe wore
it and started coming down to the store and it
mushroomed. They became great customers and pretty
loyal and it has been that way for many years.
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urban was not the demographic - - what was it
that you specifically targeted?
JC: I am embarrassed to tell
you that we had no demographic. As a matter of
fact, it has always been a difficult question
to answer. Even before the urban phenomenon, I
would sit there and hem and haw because it could
be a 15 year old who saw the bomber jacket at
the time, we are talking late 70’s early
80’s because it was cool to be wearing leather.
One of the things that you guys are too young
to know is that leather, especially in this country,
was always considered for bad boys.
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Isn’t
that like John Travolta in Grease?
JC: Right! Look at Grease, that
is the 50’s. We were really the first company
to say that you don’t have to be bad to
wear leather and we recreated WWII and military
type style into commercial style that anybody
could wear and which now of course is in most
everybody’s wardrobe.
So coming back to your question about demographic,
I would say sit there and say, ‘well, it
is the 15 year old who thinks it’s cool
but it’s also the 50 year old at the time
- - now 80 year old - - who lost his jacket, gave
it away, didn’t realize that it meant something
to him and wants to bring back his wartime jacket
[and experience].’ It spans a whole lot
of ages. If you look at our campaign this year,
which I think was very successful; at least representing
what we wanted it to accomplish, which was to
tell the world: listen, you have some very “urban”
pieces there but our traditions are over here
which are just as cool to wear and are consequently
being copied by everyone
Once
you saw that Avirex was being enjoyed by the urban
demographic, did you begin to look at the urban
market as a demographic and did you veer over
by designing pieces specifically for that market
or just go straight on your path?
JC: I think both because we
realized that our customer wanted a bigger fit.
We didn’t sit back and demand that they
wear a tight fitting jacket because we are not
stupid. We made bigger fits - - so if that is
what you mean, then yes. Did we then expand, especially
in the sportswear, into active wear, which are
very basketball and a baseball type thing? Sure!
Was it part of out tradition? Absolutely! Again
it is classic American apparel. It’s sports,
it is classic! Is it reinterpreted? Yes, but that’s
what we are known for. We have always reinterpreted
everything into more of a fashion item.
Next
up: learn about the Avirex flagship store and
licensing as our sit-down with Jackie Clyman continues.
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