Worldly is a new creative house coming to Atlanta to empower upcoming designers of color. Its founder, Jason Harvey, wanted to have a space that could create opportunities for people of color to learn and make money in the fashion industry.
“I want to allow everybody to feel like they have a space where they can come in and freely create without anything that you would normally have to worry about,” Harvey said. “All I ask of these designers that I bring on board for my brand is to just bring your sewing skills and your time- everything else, we literally cover for you. We’re providing an entire platform for them to be able to come forward and create the collection of their dreams stress-free, essentially.”
The name “Worldly” comes from Harvey’s religious background of being involved in church.
“My church, back then if you got a little too far out, they’d be like, ‘Baby, slow down. You’re getting a little too worldly for me,’” Harvey said. “They looked at the negatives with it, but I kind of looked at the positives of it, meaning we’re all essentially of the world … You can’t not live, you just tend to get knocked down for so many different things and it’s a part of growth.”
The creative house debuted on March 23 with a fashion show at Magic City to showcase the first collection, “Eden on Hush”.
“Eden on Hush” is the product of a collaboration between Harvey and fashion designer John Byrd-Olivieri. Harvey met Byrd-Olivieri while searching for someone to help him sew the tedious garments he was making for a church he was attending in Atlanta.
Harvey and his director traveled to Hancock Fabrics with a specific person in mind, but they weren’t in the store that day. Byrd-Olivieri, however, was and offered his services to Harvey. Harvey was immediately impressed with Byrd-Olivieri’s “hunger” to create.
“We just clicked, we really clicked,” Harvey said. “He understood me and I totally understood him. I think we both kind of saw what each other were going through and we just kind of always had each other’s backs.”
Despite having very different aesthetics, Harvey and Byrd-Olivieri were able to work well together then, and now to make “Eden on Hush”. Harvey enjoys avant-garde colors, prints and silhouettes, while Byrd-Olivieri prefers clean and formal pieces.
“If you merge those two worlds together, you end up getting something that’s one of a kind, you end up getting something that’s very classy and chic, but also something that’s just very wild and something you wouldn’t normally see on a day to day basis,” Harvey said.
For Worldly’s future collections, Harvey will collaborate with other designers such as Byrd-
Olivieri and also local Atlanta talent. The designer for the next collection has already been chosen by Harvey, but has yet to be announced.
The Atlanta designers chosen by Harvey will have the ability to work with his team and have their work featured in upcoming collections, while also taking advantage of Worldly’s resources and professional connections. Harvey would like to host a fun competition for the selection process.
Why Atlanta?
Although he’s originally from Tennessee, Harvey moved to Atlanta over fifteen years ago and considers it his second home. He thought that Atlanta would be a perfect home for Worldly because of its unique cultural influence and abundance of talented creatives.
Harvey already has a couple locations in mind for Worldly, and is particularly interested in bringing something new to the downtown area.
“All those different areas like Underground [are] great places, [but there’s] just nothing going on over there anymore,” Harvey said. “There’s still plenty of time for us to go out there and plant something beautiful and build it back up … We just got to come together.”
Sustainable fashion
According to Harvey, Worldly is strictly a made-to-order brand. He carefully selects fabrics for his garments that he knows he will be able to reorder, but there will be some limited-edition pieces for the customers that are able to place their orders first.
“I’m all about sustainability and looking to not contribute to the waste issue that is taking place today within fashion and any kind of way that I can help to take care of the planet, I definitely want to do my part on that,” Harvey said.
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