Love me some local goodness and Huntington’s own Lauren Giambalvo has executed a supremely tailored casual menswear line (and a recently added women’s collection) under her label Jack Henry NY.
I recall a specific time, years ago in high school, riding in Lauren’s jeep and listening to her tell me about the fashion program at Marist College. I had already had my heart set on the non-fashion-focused Design & Management degree at Parsons School of Design. However, fashion is fashion and I’ll participate in any conversation that includes glossies, clothing, and accessories. It must have been her first year at the time, because she claimed having to read and cut up magazines for homework! For homework! (Were obviously talking mood boards and such here) But none the less I thought, this is fashion school? Hah hah hah. Turned out, this is not what fashion school would be.
Finally making my way to Parsons as a freshman I saw my roommates, dorm friends, and classmates drop like flies as slaves to the fashion department. Fresh, curious, vibrant, excited young students became tortured, unstable, insomnia cases within a matter of months without even the glimmer of a prospective garment in sight. Why were they such stylish zombies? Sucked into laborious hours of what? There were no garment racks around the school as one would imagine, so I was confused and sympathetic to the fact that there was no product of their painstaking labor.
Lauren Giambalvo graduated from Marist and founded BraveHeart Brand in 2009 which she humbly admits, began as an unemployment project. Fall/Winter 2011 is the first collection under the Jack Henry NY label and Spring 2012, the second, includes women’s wear. The fall/winter line is a focus on the neutral staples of a fall look for men; tailored long john inspired knits with a need/supply approach to pants, jackets, and coats. This first collection got featured on the Paper magazine blog labeled under ‘obsessed’ here: PAPERMAG: WORD UP! – Obsessed: New Menswear Line Jack Henry. The Jack Henry NY spring line carries all the sheer chiffon, linen, liberty london print shirting, and crisp delicate pieces men and women need to mix into their closet to refresh, reshape, and solidify a wardrobe.
In her own words: “I wanted to present something that is perfectly tailored, high quality and most importantly: made in NY! I work with this really amazing tailor in Long Island City who is one of the last of the old Italian tailors.”
Visit + Shop Jack Henry NY HERE.
