About Us

Picture Marlon Brando on his bike in The Wild One, or James Dean in nearly every scene of Rebel Without a Cause. Those guys wore a plain white tee like it was the only thing worth wearing. Something in it felt real, and still does. A tangible relationship between a person and what they had on. Style that didn't need to announce itself for attention or likes. A perfectly fit garment that just felt honest, without pretention.

That feeling is mostly gone now in fashion. Simplicity has been traded for efficiency, attention and trend chasing.

My training was in the most considered way a garment can be made. First, Apparel Design and Textiles at Washington State University, then a Masters in Couture Design at Accademia Costume e Moda in Rome, because I wanted to understand the real craft behind a garment. The beauty and simplicity of pattern-making, draping and fit. Then I began my career on the opposite end, designing for major American retailers, where garment making is at its most efficient and its most mass-appealing, where beauty was sacrificed for cost.

Every season, the same thing. Hundreds of styles designed, produced, shipped, marketed, sold, marked down, replaced. Then again. A new "vision," a tweak in fit, a different color, a fresh marketing angle. Rinse and repeat. Nobody asks why, because the answer is obvious: profit and job security. But I couldn't stop asking a different question. At what cost?

The waste is the part you see first. What bothered me more was the pressure, up and down the chain, to cut costs at every link. Costs that quietly chip away at fabric, at construction, at labor. Sustainability goals were always first to be thrown overboard.

We make too much, too fast, with too little care for how it's made or how long it lasts, as long as it hits margin. The connection between a person and their garment, the kind that made a worn-in tee look like a second skin instead of a costume, got traded for volume and speed.

So I started with one thing. A merino wool tee, cut close the way those old tees fit, so you look like you belong right beside the people in those films. Made the complete opposite way almost everything else in this industry is made: with accountability and quality at every step, start to finish, entirely in the United States. No corners cut, nothing outsourced. A system built with like-minded farmers, knitters, and makers who still care.

I always knew I wanted to build a clothing company. It took me longer to know what it would stand for. But now, I do.

Jansen Quality Garment Co. stands for considered craftsmanship, a transparent and ethical supply chain, and raising the status quo for others to follow.

One garment at a time.

— Jansen