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Fashion designer J’Amy Tarr has seen her fair share of women wear her designs over the years, from a dress Beyoncé wore that she had a hand in designing to the everyday woman who until recently walked into her Mill Valley design studio.
The Mill Valley native’s desire to give back in these pandemic times led her to create “50 Jackets for 50 Strong Women,” her program to gift a jacket to 50 nominated women working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic — not just health care workers, but also grocery, delivery and postal workers — in the United States. She is accepting nominations through Tuesday by email at info@jamytarr.com or on Instagram (@jamytarr).
Tarr, who has a master of fine arts in both fashion design and textile design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and more than two decades of experience in the fashion industry, started her women’s outwear-driven brand in 2011.
Photo by Rust & Flourish
“I thought, I love fashion, I know I want to be in fashion and do fashion for my career, but I want to do it in a more positive way for women and come from a better place,” says J’Amy Tarr on why she started her brand.
She can be heard discussing all things fashion with Marin artist Lisa Anderson Shaffer on their podcast Biased Cuts.
Q What inspired you to create this program?
A I was racking my brain, what can I do? How can I give back? How can I recognize people? How can I help? When you are small, it’s not like I can give tons of money, but I thought, I am going to get creative with this. They are heroes, and are helping other people live sort of normal lives. It’s just a small thing that I can do, to let somebody know that they are incredible and we appreciate that.
Q Where does your love of fashion come from?
A My mom’s mom, Dorothy, lived in North Hollywood. She liked fashion and she would have the full outfits and costume jewelry, and it was almost an education just to see how she put things together. I love vintage style and when I moved to San Francisco to work for Levi’s, I was a big vintage store person. Growing up in Marin, I felt pretty free. Rita Abrams was one of my singing teachers. In Mill Valley, you just were yourself and did your own thing.
Q What made you want to start your own brand?
A When I was at Michael Kors, I was able to see the inner workings of the fashion industry and there were some things that I saw that I was like, this isn’t me. There was a little bit of negativity. I thought, I love fashion, I know I want to be in fashion and do fashion for my career, but I want to do it in a more positive way for women and come from a better place.
Q Besides meeting your husband, Doug, what did you get from your time at Levi’s?
A When I worked at Levi’s, I had fire engine red hair. I had a Bettie Page hairstyle. I had a bunch of piercings and I was a little bit punk rock, looked very different than I do today. My job was in merchandising, so when I was at Levi’s, I was expressing myself with all this creativity with how I dressed and how I did my hair and I thought, I am missing that part in my career. I wanted to translate all that creativity and have it come out through my work more, and here I am now. I have blonde hair. I look pretty vanilla, and I am very creative in what I do. It flip-flopped.
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