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With her new brand Rùadh, Jac Cameron has chosen to take a “go small or go home approach” to fashion. An industry veteran and denim expert who co-founded AYR and was once Calvin Klein’s global denim director, Cameron knows from big. With this new project the idea is to really focus on craft and a connection to nature. (The company’s B Corp certification is pending.) “I just wanted to put something out there that really spoke to craftsmanship again; not a massive collection,” the designer said. There are “only 11 pieces for launch and every season I’ll be launching a new category that will be very tight—for next fall I’m exploring handknit sweaters in Scotland. I want to really make fashion feel like a cherished art form again.”
Though based in New York for 20 years, Cameron grew up on a farm outside Glasgow. To photograph the first Rùadh collection, the designer made a nostalgic return to Caledonia—Elgin, to be exact—where models posed in golden fields under a clear sky in denims that have a supple lightness and distinctive but gentle shapes. There’s much attention to detail here: the buttons on a pullover shirt were made in Italy from “about 80% recycled fiber,” she said; a seam above the ankle to create a curved leg line and jacket pockets feature a small vent. The pieces, many of regenerative cotton, are made in a smart factory in Los Angeles. “For me it’s about construction and making sure things are hand-touched,” Cameron said.
For all the suppleness of the denim, the brand is built around strength. Rùadh (roo-ah) is a Scottish Gaelic word meaning red. It’s used to describe (stereotypically feisty) redheads, and, Cameron explained, “it is also associated with concepts of strength and quiet resilience.” Much like denim, which is built to last and gets better with age.
