Mary Jaeger designs sculpted and dyed accessories for women, focusing on quality and hand-made details. Drawing on her years in Asia, she creates timeless, well-constructed designs in unorthodox colors, patterns and striking textures – a perfect blend of Eastern and contemporary Western ideas. Her signature work includes shibori dyed tees and tucked wool wraps and other apparel, such as scarves, coats, jackets, capes, hats and bags. As one of her longtime customers puts it: “It’s classic with a surprising twist.”
Mary has studied at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Nihon Senshoku Gakuen, Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on couture collections with kimono artisans at Shiho International (Kyoto; Paris) and Koei Kogei Kinsai Yuzen Dyeing. She has also designed for Mary McFadden and Jack Mulqueen.
Mary is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Association of Total Fashion Upcoming Designer Award (Osaka, Japan, 1988), she is a BUILD 2008 Special Honoree, and won the Smithsonian Honoring the Future Sustainability Award 2019. Her work is featured in The Fiber Arts Book of Wearable Art by Katherine Duncan Aimone. She has exhibited internationally and her work has been featured in publications including FiberArts, Surface Design, Food and Wine, New York Magazine, Oprah, Brides, Interior Design, Elle Décor, Weekend, McCalls, and Martha Stewart. She is currently based in New York City.
Mary also makes jewelry (shown here), which like her textile work is shibori-oriented and shows her flair for the dramatic.
Visit her Jewelry Page here.
ARTISANAL engineered textile works
Our garments and accessories are hand-stitched and dyed individually using the ancient shaped resist dye technique shibori (shiboru (verb) in Japanese means to "wring, squeeze, press"). In this case the shibori is created by manipulating the textile using threads, cords or clamps that are wrapped around selected portions of the fabric, cinched and tied, thus preventing the dye from penetrating that area when the fabric is submerged into the dye bath. This process may be repeated numerous times to create complex bands of color and texture. Once the dye is set, the resist is removed and the resulting pattern magically revealed. Each garment or accessory has its own unique characteristics defined by colors, particular kaleidoscope design configurations and additional surface embellishments.
CARE INSTRUCTIONS: Hand wash, inside out, with a mild soap in cool water and lay flat to dry, or machine wash inside out on gentle/hand-wash cycle and put into the dryer for 2-5 minutes, then lay flat to dry. Press with a warm iron as necessary. Dry cleaning is optional for wool, cashmere and alpaca.
FABRIC CONTENT: natural fibers including cotton, wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca.
