EXHIBITIONS

PARIS, FRANCE 2018

JAY JAXON: A Biographical Study and Media Discourse Analysis Reinstating A Designer Into Fashion History.

Jay Jason Jaxon whose birth name is Eugene Jackson, was born on August 30, 1941, in Queens, New York. Jaxon would grow up to become a fashion designer, making historical imprints on the concrete streets of New York City, as well as the cobblestoned roads of Paris, and on the Hollywood walk of fame in Los Angeles.

Rachel Fenderson focused her Master’s thesis on reintroducing fashion designer Jay Jason Jaxon into Fashion History, American History, and French History. The study of Jay Jaxon as an American couturier, fashion and costume designer, not only fills a gap in the fashion historiography of XX and XXI century, but it also contributes to the critical discussion on diverse representation within the fashion industry.

The foundation of this exhibition celebrates the life of Jay Jaxon as an American Fashion Designer, an Haute Couture Designer, and Costume Designer. Rachel utilized ephemeral materials, artifacts, and research documentation from her designer’s archive she amassed while developing her Master’s thesis to showcase Jay Jaxon’s historical contributions.

This exhibition illustrates the importance of Jay Jaxon as a designer and how his presence in the fashion industry made it possible for more to follow, through the doors he left open. 

JAMAICA, New York 2019

JAY JAXON: Fashion Designer, Le Couturier, Costumer | 40 Years Of Fashion Design Brilliance

Jay Jaxon’s contribution to the industry as a creator is significant to Black History, Fashion History, American History, and French History. Throughout his career Jaxon created costumes for celebrities and entertainers, for television and film, and for plays and music videos.

In 2018, once Rachel Fenderson returned from Paris, she set her sites on releasing an exhibition on Jay Jaxon in his hometown of Jamaica, Queens, New York. Rachel depicted Jaxon’s fashion design brilliance at the Queens Central Library for the month of August 2019. This exhibition restored the history of Jaxon by displaying artifacts, garments, objects, and primary sources from the research archive and.collection of Fashion Historian and Curator Rachel Fenderson. It was displayed on 26 panels with 26 written content boards, and ephemeral materials showcased in glass vitrines.

The objective of this historical restoration was to highlight Jaxon’s inroads in the fashion industry posthumously, as they are briefly mentioned academically, or none at all. In true entrepreneurial spirit during the late 1960s through the 2000s, Jaxon created and reestablished his own brand in New York, Paris, and in California.

The reintroduction of Jay Jaxon not only transforms the fashion narrative of the past century, it helps to enrich the histories of the present and future through diverse representation.

FLUSHING, New York 2020

JAY JAXON: 40 YEARS OF FASHION DESIGN BRILLIANCE | PAST  PRESENT  FUTURE

Jay Jaxon has been recognized by the American, French, and other European news publications in the 1970s, as the first American and African American to create Haute Couture for a French Couture Maison in Paris, France.

For the 50th Anniversary of Jay Jaxon’s historical Couturier role, Rachel Fenderson released an exhibition displaying his historical contributions to fashion. Jaxon’s history was featured on 10 Acrylic panels, 17 Canvases, 32 Written Content Canvases, 11 Theoretical and Historical books, 8 Video recorded Portfolio Interviews, a record player belting out Jaxon's favorite song, ephemeral materials, and two Wescott garments, from Rachel’s research archive, at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, New York, from February 8th 2020 – December 29th 2020.

What’s more to capture the essence of Jamaica, Queens in the way Jay Jaxon and his family would have experienced it, Rachel tapped the Queens Historical Society’s Archive and displayed pictures of Queens, New York from the early 1900’s through the 1990’s.

This exhibition not only preserves and protects the legacy of Jay Jaxon it also preserves and highlights the works of former Models, Scholars, Activists, Historians, Fashion Consultants, and Emerging Designers while showing them experiencing the original portfolio of Jaxon. The industry professionals featured in the Exhibition Portfolio Anthology Docuseries divided into three categories “Exalting The Past”, “Burgeoning The Present”, & “Vanguarding The Future.”

(Retired Model, Professor, & Fashion Director Renée Hunter), (Model & Activist Renauld White), (Writer, Historian, Curator, and Professor at Parsons & Harvard, & Curator Dr. Jonathan Michael Square), (Global Fashion Brand Consultant Ronny Oppong), (Professor at Parsons & Curator Sebastian Grant), (Fashion Designer & Founder Dannielle Kellogg), (Fashion Designer Isaiah Cargill), and (Fashion Designer & Founder Keresse Dorcely).