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Where does the future of fashion lie? Does it rest with celebrity collaborations? Top designers who have led fashion brands for years? Or somewhere else?
According to Jojo.Z, a creative director, cross-cultural art project initiator, interdisciplinary interactive media artist and founder of PoemoArt, fashion’s next creative revolution is unlikely to stem from these types of places. Instead, true creative change is going to result from community-driven initiatives — something she has experienced firsthand in her own career.
From Isolation to Collaboration
Jojo’s career arc is the perfect example of a growing trend in fashion — the growing influence of other communities and subcultures that are bringing their own expertise and sensibilities to the fashion world.
“One of my early cross-disciplinary projects was also a significant fashion-related experience helping to digitally preserve Kazakh embroidery traditions,” she recalls. “This project focused on the digital preservation and reinterpretation of traditional Kazakh embroidery through cultural research, eye-tracking and algorithmic generation. It was a fascinating initial exposure to the ideas of fashion and the cultural importance it can carry.”
The project, which Jojo initially approached through the lens of interactive media, digital design and cultural research, was later adopted by a Kazakh cultural preservation program — and it helped show her how creative work can gain new relevance when it is connected to new media, new contexts and wider audiences.
(Courtesy)
In addition to the Kazakh embroidery project, which received a national-level Bronze Award in China’s “Create Youth” Cultural Tourism Creative Design Competition, Jojo also led visual and interactive scenic direction for a bilingual theater program within an interdisciplinary team spanning performance, costume, technology and stage design.
These experiences taught Jojo the importance of collaboration with people from drastically different artistic backgrounds. A lone artist trying to bring their vision to life on their own wasn’t going to be nearly as effective as one with the input of a broader community.
The Power of Cross-Disciplinary Communities
The idea that artistic communities bring creative power has been a central part of Jojo mission at PoemoArt, where she currently serves as Founder and Creative Director.
As she explains, “Artists across all disciplines — fashion, illustrators, ceramics, jewelry and more — often have a desire to collaborate, but they lack the resources and connections to do so. Yet, those community experiences can be the most powerful way to fuel new creative ideas or collaborations that might never exist otherwise. It’s when creative people get together and share their ideas and talents that they can create something even more innovative. We all have our favorite interests or subcultures that influence us in a distinct way, and when we combine those with someone who has a completely different background, that’s when we create something truly unique.”
Jojo sees this in all kinds of everyday fashion trends, like the popularity of clothing influenced by manga and anime, or using unconventional items like hair clips or measuring tapes to create belts. Such trends only appear when fashion designers look to influences and trends outside of the typical fashion world, or even incorporate ideas that at first glance might seem to have nothing to do with clothing design. This outside-the-box thinking usually stems from being willing to engage with other artistic disciplines.
A key part of Jojo’s work in this area has involved building connections between independent artists in Asia and the United States. Her efforts have helped to simultaneously enable Asian artists to reach U.S. audiences and creative opportunities, while also creating pathways for U.S.-based artists to connect with creative resources and audiences in Asia. “Community is a creative network that can (and should) extend across cultural and geographic boundaries,” she says.
Further building on this concept, Jojo initiated and continues to lead the “Shumunity” community art initiative, a recurring, curated, no-fee community platform for independent artists in New York City. Jojo oversees the core creative and curatorial direction, including artist selection, thematic direction, spatial experience, and longer-term collaboration strategy for what has become a meaningful community initiative. As a fully curated exhibit, participating artists do not pay booth fees, retain their event sales and receive support including physical space, display fixtures, promotion and social media exposure. With two exhibitions held so far and a third in development, Jojo sees this as a powerful example of creators bringing their best ideas together for even more growth.
(Courtesy)
“For artists, Shumunity provides a low-barrier opportunity to receive real-world feedback on their products, pricing and audience response rather than relying only on online engagement. Shumunity takes place within a retail environment already centered on independent artist merchandise, rather than in a general street market. This means participating artists are engaging with an audience that already has a demonstrated interest in discovering and purchasing independent creative work. It’s a truly curated environment for artists to test, learn and build future creative relationships. For us, it also creates a way to better understand which artists and creative directions resonate with our audience and may develop into longer-term collaborations,” Jojo explains.
The relationship extends beyond the event with an intentionally reciprocal model. Artists gain a low-cost way to test and develop their work, while some participating artists can later move into longer-term creative collaborations with the platform, including retail consignment and product development.
“For me, community is most meaningful when it creates structure. It is not only about bringing people into the same room. It is about creating a system where artists can enter with less risk, understand where their work can go next, and build relationships that continue beyond a single event.”
A New Wave of Fashion
Her own experiences have given Jojo ample reason to believe that fashion’s creative future lies in community-driven, cross-disciplinary collaborations. As artists across a wide range of disciplines find ways to share ideas and inspiration, they will be able to unlock new horizons, not just in fashion, but in other areas as well. Done right, creative communities can become sustained structures for experimentation, collaboration and growth — not just spaces for exchanging inspiration.
By looking for community and connection, the fashion designers who will have the biggest impact on the industry’s future will be able to find the inspiration they need to create something truly unique.
In partnership with APG
