J O B A K E R W A T E R S
B I O
Jo Baker Waters is a Luxury Fashion Designer and Bespoke Tailor. Known for signature sharp tailoring and sculptural hand tailoring for Innovative genderless Design, combining luxury fabrics, with Savile Row expertise, gained from a Tailoring Apprenticeship at Gieves & Hawkes, Savile Row, London, and awarded by The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, established in 1327, London.
She lives and works between Los Angeles, London, and New York. A practicing artist combining art, textiles & bespoke tailoring. Exploring inspiration from historicism, art, sculpture, popular culture, and cinematic film noir references influencing design and hand-crafted tailoring techniques for lavish tailored clothes, which then re-enters into mass media in the form of magazines, film, fashion shows, and Instagram posts.
She is also the author of "Pattern Cutting Techniques for Ladies’ Jackets", published by The Cromwood Press, in 2017. Concerned that the authentic sustainable skill of tailoring was diminishing, she embarked on the project in 2013, with the hope to inspire the next generation of bespoke apprentices and fashion enthusiasts with a focus on exquisite tailoring, acknowledging the craft, and a focus on design.
The former RTW Senior Designer at Calvin Klein, New York, working with Creative Leaders: Tim Coppens, Raf Simons, Pieter Mulier, and Kevin Carrigan; leading the creation of product, from concept, through detailed design. In 2013, she was sponsored by Calvin Klein to emigrate to the United States joining the menswear team as the senior designer. She remained at the brand until September 2020. Since leaving Calvin, she works as a professor of Practice in Fashion Design at the ASU Herberger Institute, and at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, while working on a new upcoming exhibition and book titled The Anatomy of Suits.
Her first design job was with Anna Sui in New York, in 1999, notably designing the silver biker outfit for Lenny Kravitz, which lead to other collaborations with designers: Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll and Joe Casely-Hayford, in London. At Richard Nicoll, they worked together on his runway Collections and collaborated on his first menswear collection in 2013. She created some of his most memorable show pieces; tailored jackets with silk bows grown-on to the lapel, mixing dress draping with traditional tailoring, colour block suits, and the mechanics of LED dresses. Waters and Nicoll remained close friends up until his death in 2016.
Waters’ tailoring apprenticeship was awarded at naval tailors’ Gieves & Hawkes, of Savile Row, London, founded in 1771, working with a coat maker called Andreas Gomez as an apprentice. During her time on the Row, she obtained an extensive background in bespoke cutting, fitting, and tailoring techniques; with an eleven-year residency as a Savile Row tailor. In 2005, Baker Waters received two Awards at the Golden Shears Competition gala night, held in London, by the Royal Livery: The Merchant Taylor’s Company. Winning two awards for Gold: "Best Overall Winner," and Silver: "Best Womenswear."