From virtual flower shops to dressing the US first lady: a year in the life of designer Jonathan Cohen

In March 2020, as the world went into lockdown, stores began cancelling their orders of Jonathan Cohen’s AW20 collection and the designer and his co-founder Sarah Leff had to quickly invent new ways of working so their business could survive. So they put production on hold and opted to recalibrate their processes from top to bottom rather than comply with the fashion calendar’s predetermined rhythm.

They closed the loop on their production cycle by moving all their manufacturing to Italy, close to where they source their materials, in turn slashing shipping costs; a new category of layering pieces cut from recycled polyester was added to their upcycled ‘Studio’ designs, and are available on their newly expanded ecommerce site, and they debuted their AW21 collection on May 11—their first in a year—two months after New York Fashion Week, with some pieces available to buy immediately. From now on, Jonathan Cohen will show on its own schedule.

Cohen and Leff’s nimbleness is thanks, in part, to their experience in navigating tumultuous times. The duo, who are 35 and 33 and hail from Mexico City by way of San Diego and Atlanta respectively, met at Parsons School of Design in New York and had always aspired to build their own brand. After graduating in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis, they established Jonathan Cohen in 2011; their cornucopia of floral prints and colour were an optimistic contrast to the market at the time, which “was saturated with black and dark colours,” says Cohen. “This season, when we come back, we thought, ‘Should we be a more monochromatic brand and do sweats?’ We decided what we do is more important than ever.”

One notable client in agreement is first lady of the US, Dr Jill Biden, who on the eve of the inauguration in January stepped out in a purple coat and dress of Cohen’s design, complete with mask and gloves. Here, the 2018 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up reflects on the past year that has seen them thrive in many ways, as they lay the foundations for the brand’s next chapter.

A flower shop of the future

Jonathan Cohen: “I was back home in California for the first few months of lockdown. My mum’s birthday is in March and someone sent her flowers and I found myself spraying them with Lysol [disinfectant spray]. There was so much fear; we were scared to get flowers. So I started sketching bouquets and sending them to friends digitally and it really meant a lot to people. We branched out into digital and framed artworks and sold them on the site.”

Sarah Leff: We built Our Flower Shop to give back. An organisation was connected to each arrangement, with 30 per cent of the proceeds going to the likes of Futures Without Violence, to help deal with the increase in domestic violence. During the Black Lives Matter protests, we launched a George Floyd arrangement with 100 per cent of the sale going to The Bail Project.

Collaborations with a conscience

SL: “Our Flower Shop led to a collaboration with Tidal New York, who make flip-flops from castor-seed extract, so they’re biodegradable and there’s zero waste because they’re moulded rather than cut out. We also collaborated on stationery with Dempsey & Carroll and face coverings with Studio Antony Vallon who make all our couture pieces such as Dr Jill Biden’s outfit.”

Upscaling the upcycling

SL: “In 2019, we launched our upcycle programme, The Studio—after spending two years analysing our production processes, waste, sourcing and traceability. When we put AW20 production on hold, we decided to find new opportunities with the textiles we were sitting on. For AW21 we worked with Carolina Herrera who gave us deadstock fabrics, so while Jonathan created all the new prints, we made sure almost everything else was made using these deadstock materials.”

JC: “One of my favourite pieces from AW21 is made entirely from past season’s remnants. We smocked big and small pieces of fabric together to create a couture-like braided dress. It's so important to have a sense of timelessness in the collection so that nothing goes out of style. There's no such thing as a trend.”

A very special customer

JC: “Dr Biden is reimagining what a first lady is—she's a doctor, a teacher, she’s spoken so openly about divorce in interviews, and how she overcame hers. That’s an incredible message to send to the modern woman who might be fearful of divorce or see it as something shameful. Of course, we couldn’t do fittings because of the pandemic, so everything was done on a dress form. I really enjoyed that challenge; looking at the garment, deciding whether it looks like her, constantly looking at images to see if I could imagine her in this design.”

Prints that tell a story

JC: “There’s a cotton shirt dress from AW21 with a really special print I call the critter garden party. As I was sketching the garden and looking at all the flowers, hummingbirds, butterflies and dragonflies, it made me think they were the only thing socialising during this time. The collection was inspired by a few things—spending lockdown in my childhood home, examining my relationship with florals through the flower shop. The movie What Dreams May Come [1998] was also an important reference; Robin Williams’ character dies but lives in his wife’s Monet-esque paintings. When he touches the flowers in the painting they smudge, so we added a smudge effect to some of our floral prints. There’s also a scene with a dalmatian so we introduced a spotted print, too.”