Designer Profile: Jesse
Name: Jesse Ruoff
Major: Apparel Design
Year: 2012
What do you love about fashion?
Reinvention. Taking great old ideas and processes and revisiting them with new technology.
How would you describe your personal style in three words?
Colorful. Basic. Denim.
What is your dream job?
I dream of starting my own denim business that provides custom fitting jeans. I see longevity and functionality as essential traits of both good design and ethical business. If customers wear my products for a substantial amount of time this reduces waste. People don’t wear things that don’t fit. For me at least, the better a piece fits, the more I want to wear it.
What are you inspired by right now?
Peace, serenity, authenticity, and quality. Also the sun and vintage European motorcycles.
What is your favorite place to buy fabric?
“Pendleton Woolen Mills!” (he said, shamelessly). I would actually say Paron Fabrics in NYC. I just love going in there and feeling all the wonderful wools.
Favorite Class at Cornell Thus Far?
Introduction to Massage. Any massage is a good massage!
Favorite Spring 2011 Collection?
Burberry Prorsum has been amazing me lately. There is just so much going on. Also Shipley and Halmos.
Favorite off campus restaurant?
Just A Taste. If you have not been there, please stop what you are doing and go right now. It isamazing!
Last book you read?
The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
What are you loving right now in your closet?
My fluffy loose knit sweater from Loft, Design by… and light wash Pepe Jeans. I am ready for spring and they are just the thing for a picnic!
What is your current state of mind?
Expanding.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
People + Time.
What is your greatest fear?
Failure. Not living up to my own goals and ideals.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
This is a tough one…I’ve always identified with Teddy Roosevelt and love his quotes but I think I would have to say Robert A. Heinlein. He looks at the future with both wonder and trepidation of that which humans are capable. His stories are also a fun read.
Which living person do you most admire?
Matt Dillahunty.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself ?
How easily I am distracted. I could see this as profound wonder of the world but it’s frustrating when I need to get things accomplished.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
It’s a toss up between being full of themselves and the basic failure to think, be it about life, humanity, or what exactly it is that we know about the world.
What is it that you most dislike?
Dogma and fanaticism.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I would love to say “I huge bed!” but right now it is raw denim.
What do you most value in your friends?
The ability to have fun no matter the situation.
What is your favorite journey?
Longboarding to the Plantations!
What is your most treasured possession?
My Saddleback Leather briefcase. I don’t know how my life would work without it.
When and where were you happiest?
Oh wow…hmm… Can’t talk about that right now.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Increase my drive to create and do.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I would place last year’s Pendleton collection high on my list. I look at the jumpsuit and get a
wonderful warm fuzzy feeling!
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I would make them a tad more fashionable. That way they would be fashionable at all.
If you died and came back as a person or thing what do you think it would be?
Human leather? I think that is the only product I would want to be made into. Reincarnation-wise? That’s silly, but perhaps a dog.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Cheerfulness!
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Jigsaw. I’ve always been more interested in villains than heros. Heros are often not complex enough. I don’t want to see black and white. I want humanity. I want mixed emotions and tough decisions between conflicting interests, both good and bad. If I had to pick though, I would say Spiderman.
What is your motto?
Quality in all things.
