A Dress Fit For Noah’s Ark

Noah may have built an arc, but one Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) concentrator is going about flood preparation in a different way—she has designed a line of water-friendly garb.

Jane H. Van Cleef ’06 opened a store in Inman Square earlier this month to sell 14 different styles of clothes and accessories for her VES senior thesis.

The clothing store, which she has dubbed the Climate Change Preparedness Center, sells items designed for “a swampy more aquatic-oriented future,” according to Van Cleef.

The store’s offerings range from t-shirts featuring Van Cleef’s paintings to orange rain dresses, which have a “flared skirt for increased water shedding capacity,” according to her catalog.

She said her interest in aquatic themes and human technology is rooted in her early fascination with contrasting industrial decay and swampy land.

“I’m from northern New Jersey, and when you take the train from my house to New York you pass through the Meadowlands,” she said. “They’re beautiful swamps full of industrial ruin.”

Van Cleef, who formerly focused on painting, recruited her friends to help produce around 10 articles of clothing for each design.

Her mail-order catalogue offers instructions on how to make rope out of old trash bags and tips on net construction for fishing.

“Objects that now seem like eyesores will become essential items like floats, storage bottles, and drinking vessels,” according to her catalogue.

“Things that we have now will come into their true use in the future,” Van Cleef said.

She said she is aware of the political connotations of her work, but does not want to be seen as a pundit in the debate about global warming.

“I’m interested in depolarizing [the debate] and distorting people’s preconceptions about the issue,” Van Cleef said.

Her store’s location in Inman Square fits well with her semi-political message, she said.

“Especially in this neighborhood, I feel like I’m preaching to the choir,” she added. “It gets great pedestrian traffic.”

The store, according to Van Cleef, has sold around 50 pieces of clothing and earned $1500. Her tote bags and girls’ t-shirts are hot commodities, nearly selling out.

The store is set up in a rented space that doubles as a concert hall at night.

The proceeds from the store will go towards rent and to offset the costs of the fabric. Van Cleef said she hopes there will be money left over to pay for some of her living expenses.

Emma Katz ’06, who is helping Van Cleef run the store, said that customers typically do not know what to think of it at first glance.

“Most of the people who come in here are sort of baffled,” she said. “They’re intrigued when I explain to them what’s going on here.”

The store will close April 30, when it will move to the VES showcase of student theses.

—Staff writer Kyle A. Magida can be reached at kmagida@fas.harvard.edu.