Did Jane Wade Manifest the New York Fashion Week Snow Storm With Her Fall 2024 Show?

About halfway through Jane Wade’s fall 2024 show, a model walked out carrying a snowboard. Earlier that day, meteorologists announced that a powerful winter storm would be hitting the Northeast. It snowed overnight and well into the next day. It was the most snow New York City had seen in years.

Wade, who hails from Portland, launched her eponymous label in 2022, and this fall 2024 season is her first on the official NYFW calendar. She studied fashion in San Francisco and punched the clock at a Levi’s store, “working on repairs, learning about sewing machines, and even doing some pattern work,” she told me when I met her ahead of her spring show last fall. After a study-abroad stint in London at Central St. Martins, she scored an internship with Alexander Wang in New York, where she worked for a year-and-a-half while finishing college online. Next came a position with Danielle Frankel. “I was doing design, development, and overseeing production, which was a more operational role than I wanted,” said Wade. But the company was small, which allowed her to listen in on wholesale meetings, costing and margin conversations, and more. “At Wang everything was separate, so you didn’t even know what market looked like, but Danielle was like an open kitchen format of a company, so you knew what was going on.” Wade went on to work with Elena Velez while building her own collection on the side.