CONTEMPORARY DESIGN WITH ITS ROOTS IN HERITAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY, MEET LANCIA JAEB
By: Dee Silkie
If you’ve scrolled through the latest fashions on Instagram and TikTok lately, you have likely noticed that nostalgia has taken over. Styles from the 1970s through the late ’90s are hot and crocheting vintage-inspired designs are taking off in a big way. Crocheting has come a long way from being a hobby mastered only by grandmothers creating colourful blankets out of an abundance of crocheted squares.
Lancia Jaeb is a sustainable fashion and handwork brand based in Columbus Ohio. Lancia Jaeb is making crochet cool again. Featuring beautiful hand crocheted bags, cardigans and sweaters, Lancia Jaeb produces contemporary clothing using up-cycled and dead stock material, as well as left over fibers from previous projects.
What makes this brand different from other sustainable clothing brands is that the owner, Kiersten Jaeb, is inspired to save the environment by following her passion for preserving her grandmother’s heritage. Her grandmother grew up in a small village in Italy called Faeto.
Faeto is a small village nestled in the mountains of the southern Apennines called Faíte, which is home to fewer than one thousand people who speak the language of Faetar across the world today. Faíte is an hour drive from its province’s capital, Foggia, which is nearly unreachable by public transport. Due to its secluded nature, Faíte’s culture and language is not well known throughout Italy. Furthermore, a large flux of immigration from Faíte to North America dispersed the culture, making the language very fragile. As a result, Faetar is now classified as an endangered language.
Near the beginning of the twentieth century, Jaeb’s family emigrated to the United States finally settling in San Margherita, an Italian immigrant neighborhood on the westside of Columbus, Ohio. The last of her family to speak Faetar fluently was her Great Granny, Antonia Giovannina Zelante Lanica, to whom Jaeb’s collection is dedicated.
In an attempt to honor her grandmother and preserve the memory of Faíte and Faetar, Jaeb taught herself how to crochet. It was a skill and technique that her Grandmother Antonia also used. Since her grandmother passed before she was born, it was Antonia’s crochet pieces, as well as stories her mom and her family shared that brought Jaeb closer to her family and heritage. From then she decided to continue with crochet as a main staple of the Lancia Jaeb brand.
In addition to crochet, Jaeb also draws inspiration from other techniques from her grandmother's work. Antonia designed and sewed woven pieces as well as crochet and was very cognizant of every detail; including the inner finishes and lining the clothing. This dedication to craftsmanship is something that does not get overlooked under careful examination. Jaeb and her work are very similar in that way. “I want my clothes to look just as complete on the inside as on the outside. I believe this wraps into the principle of slow fashion and not cutting corners when it comes to clothing. These details also help the clothes last longer, which of course is more sustainable in the end,” says Jaeb.
Lancia Jaeb continues to make small batch clothing using up-cycled materials and precious fibers, which are sourced from sustainable points of supply chain including thrifting, deadstock retailers and second-hand sellers. Jaeb hopes that her brand awareness will grow and the stories of her family’s culture and dialect will also grow with it.
Currently Jeab is building her brand and industry experience in the Los Angeles area. Her clothing is gender neutral and made for all bodies. It is predominantly worn by young, hard working professionals in the arts and culture sector.
You can follow her on social media here:
Instagram: @lanciajaeb
Shop here:
www.lanciajaeb.com