Jenny Fax SS27 says Just Don’t Be Happy

Interview & photography Veronica Tlapanco Szabó
Designer Jen-Fang Shueh of JennyFax

It is better not to tempt fate, to keep your head down, keep to yourself and not boast too loudly about your good fortune. There is something superstitious at the heart of JennyFax’s SS27 collection titled “Just don’t be happy, don’t be happy”, a sense that happiness, once spoken aloud…might be taken away. Wandering from set to set in this Parisian presentation, a tinge of irreverence coats the scenes. Some eeriness and uncanniness come into play as well, doused in hyper-girly trademarks of designer Jen-Fang Shueh spotted in the lace, bows, baby pinks and floral details. With the ever-changing lighting and circulating models, each visitor could harbour the feeling of witnessing something unique, making out a completely different storyline from each model’s interactions with one another. Some were affectionate towards each other, while others remained nonchalant.

This sanctioned voyeurism also draws forth a strong sense of nostalgia, for simpler times, for lazy Sundays as a kid, roaming around the house with nothing to do, with only a pile of dirty laundry to stare at. Sitting in the backseat on endless drives, accompanying your parents to wherever, whenever, staring at the little tree air freshener dangling below the rear-view mirror. All these memories now appear fractured, like the sheer tights and shoes split in half, or even the jagged manicures sported by some of the models, where each nail is a different length than its neighbouring one.

Veronica Tlapanco Szabó: This collection is called “Just don't be happy, don't be happy” from which emotional locus were you designing from?

Jen-Fang Shueh: It’s always about personal memory for me. It’s the main theme of my brand.

VTS: I see lots of religious motifs, between the crochet bibles and the spiritually imbued rosaries. Is there a memory attached to it for you?

JSF: When I was 12 or 13, I was in a very strict Christian boarding school. From the three years I spent there, I don't remember much of what the Bible says, but it's a motif for me that reminds me of those memories everywhere I go. For me, it's not a particularly religious symbol, it's more part of the memory and culture.

VTS: What is something that you find beautiful that other people think is ugly?

JSF: This collection's title, because a lot of people really think that you have to show that you are “so happy”.

I really like “just don't be happy”. Asian parents say it to their children sometimes, because they worry that if you're too happy, you won’t be perceived as humble.

But in Europe, people could interpret it as a negative thing, a bad thing, but I think it's different in Asia.

VTS: Does nostalgia perhaps also come into play in this collection?

JSF: Yes, because a lot of the clothes, fabrics and motifs are drawn from what my mom likes.

VTS: Still on nostalgia, I can hear the analogue texture in the music playing in the background, did you choose it?

JSF: Yes, it's an album by Beck, from 1994. This album compiles all of his more experimental pieces. So you can really feel the music, even though you don't know exactly where it comes from. I think it’s very interesting, because Taiwanese people are also like that, a mix since we have a lot of different cultures.

VTS: I really like that, and is there a specific movie or piece of media that you find yourself returning to for inspiration?

JSF: I really love Fargo.

VTS: What piece from the collection do you think your younger self would like the most?

JSF: My mom always loved embroidered and cute things,  I would’ve loved to have any piece. She also had a 90s, really fake Chanel bag, that kind of thing.

VTS: What's the energy like in your studio?

JSF: I have a corner with a partition. I don't like to have too many pictures, I just like to have a corner.

VTS: Do you think that there might be too many pictures that exist right now, too much inspiration perhaps?

JSF: You can't have too much inspiration, but there can be too many pictures. Now everything you see online is in a slide.

You don’t actually remember much of what you see, what remains of it is kind of like a memory or an experience.

VTS: You know how they say that smell holds a lot of memories, if you could give one smell to this collection, what would it be?

JSF: Soap. My mom really loved storing soap in her closet because she said it kept everything smelling good.

VTS: I really like your Instagram page, it’s both fun and funny. Are you the admin?

JSF: It’s a secret!

VTS: Last question, if you could be granted one wish, what would it be?

JSF: That’s really difficult. I will keep thinking about this one...