The Mean Show: Get older, stay cool

The Mean Show: Get older, stay cool


Episode 24: The fashion designer who said goodbye to Instagram

September 17, 2020

This week's episode is a conversation with Bay Area designer J’Amy Tarr, and it may be the most fun I’ve had to date recording an episode, despite some major technical difficulties. Thanks to my wonderful editor Sofija in Serbia you’d never know we had major connection problems. But trust me, we did. I think I had J’Amy on the line for nearly two hours but she did not complain—and hopefully she had as much fun chatting as I did.J’Amy and I haven't met in person, but I felt like we were old friends from the moment we starting talking.She designs specifically jackets and she learned earlier than most designers that being really focused is the future of fashion—especially now that the pandemic has changed everything about what women want to buy and how they buy it.Besides fashion, we talk about middle age, gen X and how she has gotten completely off social media! Can you believe it? Can you even imagine the liberation? Sigh, I want to be like her when I grow up.She also has a great voice and vibe! Oh, and if you're wondering about the spelling of her name, it's a combination of Jeanne and Amy. Jeanne was her paternal grandmother and James was her maternal grandfather. She was named Jeanne Amy at birth, but was called J'Amy unless she was in trouble (her mom had a friend named Jamie and loved the name). She officially changed Jeanne Amy to J'Amy in her 20s after realizing she had ended up with various accounts under different names. "When I couldn't get Southwest Airlines to combine mileage from both accounts under one name and that was the last straw!"Relevant Links:J'Amy TarrJ'Amy Tarr blogBiased Cuts podcastJoy Is Now podcastAudio editing by Sofija Jovanov