Inherited Garments: Jasper Jeffers

Photographed by Charlotte Shelton

Item: His great-grandfather's wool coat.

Charlotte Shelton: Please describe your item.

Jasper Jeffers: My garment is a wool overcoat with a beautiful mink collar. It’s navy blue, single-breasted. It has a lovely seafoam silk lining and wide shoulders. I pulled it out of a closet in my house, and I was like, it feels so Prada. 

C: It does look very Prada. Tell the story of how the item came to be in your possession.

J: I think technically the first time I wore it was Christmas eve of freshman year [of college]. 

My mom was like “wear this,” because I didn’t have a coat, but I didn’t know where it came from. I didn’t investigate the situation. Then [December] of last year, I wanted to find this coat. We have this closet in my house that’s full of all my great grandparents' coats from when we cleaned out their apartment in Florida. We were like, what are we going to do with all this stuff? They went into our coat closet and they were in this big vinyl garment bag. And I was like, I've never really gone through that. What's in there? 

So I went through the closet and it was all of these incredible, jacquard capes my great grandmother wore in the eighties because she was a real Upper East Side lady. It was so fierce. I really wanted an overcoat, and then I saw this: the fur collar. I was like, that's different. 

C: That's what drew you to it. Were there any other coats to choose from? 

J: There were a couple others, but they were all huge.

C: Who was your great-grandpa?

J: He was a real New York City man. He made little girl’s dresses. He made Caroline Kennedy’s dress for [JFK’s] inauguration. 

C: Is that how you got into fashion design? 

J: No, but I've always been aware of fashion as [being] central to my family's DNA. My parents are incredibly intentional about how they dress and what they wear. It was sort of ingrained in me as a young child that your fashion choices do matter, that taste is important and you have to cultivate it. 

C: Did you know your great grandfather?

J: I hung out with him a lot. We used to spend a lot of weekends with him in Florida. But he died when I was a very little kid, so a lot of what I know about my great-grandparents is just the clothes that they wore, the objects that remain.

C: Clothing is unique in that way, because the coat was on his body and now it’s on yours. It’s a connection that is a lot more physical than a book or a family story.

J: I wore the coat to my cousin’s birthday and my great-uncle [suggested] I get it tailored to fit my body. I don’t want to do that, because then I’m not wearing my grandfather's coat anymore. I don’t want to change the coat because it’s still him. I’m very interested in making this coat last. 

C: How does the price, or lack thereof, affect the value of it for you? 

J: I’m sure it was expensive. It was tailor made to him. But I don’t love this coat because it’s expensive, I love it because you cannot get it. When you buy something, are you thinking, “This is something that will go to my daughter?”
C: Always

J: We’re always thinking about what will become our heirlooms. I love to find things that I can pass down. But I also enjoy thinking about who I’ll pass this coat down to. Who's going to get it next? This is it’s time with me, and if I take care of it and treat it well, it will go to someone else in the family.

C: Do you think your grandpa was thinking that he would pass it down?

J: I don't think so. It's a more modern idea of creating heirlooms. I don’t think our grandparents were really thinking about object legacy. My great grandparents came to this country as immigrants with literally nothing. My great-grandmother’s first name was Fortune. She had 12 siblings. She was from Aleppo, Syria. They were the only Jews there. They immigrated through Ellis Island and they kissed the sidewalk because they heard that the streets of New York were paved with gold. That immigrant mentality of building a legacy—it was much more about creating a future in this country. They weren’t as focused on what physical things were going [to be passed down]. They were much more focused on familial legacy. 

C: I think maybe some women [think more about their clothes being passed down]. 

J: I don’t think men think about clothing like that. 

C: They’ll pass down a watch. 

J: Right, or cufflinks. A random pocket watch.
C: An accessory. 

J: Men love accessories. 

C: Yeah, it’s the only thing they’re allowed to enjoy.

J: I like to think he’s glad I’m wearing his coat.

Photographed by Charlotte Shelton