About Us

I studied Apparel Design and Textiles at Washington State University, then earned a Master in Couture Design at Accademia Costume e Moda, in Rome, Italy. I went because I wanted to understand the art of creating a garment in its best, most considered form. The true craft behind garment making.

Then I began designing clothes for major American retailers; garment making at its most efficient, its most mass-appealing. But each season I watched the same thing happen, over and over again. 

Hundreds of new styles designed, produced, shipped, marketed, sold, marked down, replaced. Then we'd do it all over again. A slightly different design "vision", a change in fit, a change in color, a new marketing strategy. Rinse and repeat. But nobody in the room really asks why because the answer is obvious; profit and job security. But at some point, I couldn't (and I still can't) stop asking myself, "At what cost?".

The waste is obvious once you really see the behind-the-scenes of how the fashion industry operates. But what really bothered me more was that up the chain, the constantly increasing pressure to cut costs at every link was becoming more and more stifling. Costs that slowly chipped away at the quality of fabric, garment construction and labor. Sustainability goals were typically the first to be thrown out.

But there's also something else that gets lost through all this cost-cutting. The consumer wearing the clothes. 

I always keep coming back to old photographs and movies. Marlon Brando on his bike in The Wild One. James Dean in literally any scene of Rebel Without a Cause. The way those guys wore a plain white tee like it was the only thing worth wearing. There was something that felt, and still feels, so real in that look. A tangible relationship between a person and what they had on. Style that didn't need to announce itself with performative displays to garner attention or "likes".

That feeling of tangibility is mostly gone now, kept alive in niche communities. We produce too much, too fast, with little care for how its made or how long it lasts, as long as it meets margins. That connection between a person and their garment, the kind that used to make a worn-in tee look like a second skin rather than a costume, has been replaced by volume and velocity.

I started Jansen Quality Garment Co. because I wanted that feeling of true tangibility back.

So I began with one single product: a merino wool tee, cut close to the body the way those classic tees fit, to make you look and feel like you belong right beside those characters we love.

A product made the complete opposite way almost every other garment is made in this industry: with complete accountability and quality at every step of the supply chain. I didn't want to release a collection where I would feel pressured to cut corners and outsource materials and production. I wanted to build a system and connect other like-minded suppliers, manufacturers, farmers, knitters and more to help create that sense of tangibility once more between an individual and their garments, and do so completely in the United States. 

I knew for a long time that I wanted to build a clothing company. It took me longer to know exactly what it would stand for. Now I do.

- Jansen