There’s an old Chinese proverb that says “an accidental meeting is more pleasant than a planned one.” In fashion-speak, this paradox in logic simply means that sometimes the last thing you intended to happen can turn out to be quite a welcome surprise. Such is the revelation being made by emerging niche clothing label, InAisce (pronounced “en ah-skuh”; in Gaelic, it means “in vain”), which has been growing an impressive army of female devotees –– despite the fact the line was conceived for men. I recently caught up with Jona, the enigmatic designer behind InAisce, at his busy Brooklyn studio to find out what, exactly, all the fuss was about –– and to try some of it on for size.
      I arrive to find Jona cutting muslin pattern samples by hand. Soft-spoken, but direct, he’s layered in pieces from his own collection, including black twisted-seam pants which are molded to his legs, and dark military-ish boots that play with the illusion of being dusted in snow. That’s the first thing you notice. The second, are the rows of quietly subversive garments hanging along old overhead ropes –– the sartorial equivalent of being caught in a beautiful, dark storm. Having just helped a flustered intern re-thread an uncooperative serging machine, a game of musical chairs begins as he whips around the room. The continual left-right-left hopping from industrial sewing machine to monstrous pattern-cutting table is not unlike watching a tennis match –– albeit played with scissors instead of racquets.