Crunching on Ice with Alexandra Grace. Text and Edits by Erica Sarda

“Those are Spy Kids glasses,” a voice said from across a crowded dorm room.  It had a slight southern drawl, and an all-knowing, stoic intonation like a grandma, or a sage.  I picked up a small pair of oval black shades from an old wooden writing desk.  They were reminiscent of something 90’s Winona Ryder would have worn, or Trinity from The Matrix.

“I love them, can I try them on?”  I curiously replied.  She smiled quietly, her bright, soulful blue eyes wide and present.  As I put them on, her expression settled, and she understood just what power they had over me.   My posture quickly shifted from unassuming and young, to foxy and charged.  “You can wear them whenever you want, I can tell you like them,” she said.  I nodded graciously and offered her a wide, toothy grin. That was my first encounter, nearly eight years ago, with my now beloved friend, Alexandra Grace.

Twenty-six-year-old fashion designer, Gracie Jenkins, known for her eponymous label, Alexandra Grace, has ascended stylistically and philosophically, and derived an artistic voice from the most honest places.  With a focus on bows and gloves, she redefines how old-world, elegant accessories can be boasted today as transportative, punchy, and divinely feminine extensions of ourselves that the likes of drag queens, Sugar and Spice, casually sport on a night out.  Set against the backdrop of one of the most expensive cities in the world, she has stayed afloat through both hustle and humility.

Now, as an expecting mother, her world has shifted into new dimensions.  Besides a revised approach to her design practice, she has developed a quirky and not uncommon addiction to eating ice, plain: an unexpected facet of her pregnancy.  I hang onto Gracie’s words at Soho Diner between loud crunches.  She even offers me some from a plastic cup as though I’m missing out.  The steadfast, dreamlike inner world of Alexandra Grace has always fascinated me, and now as she embarks upon uncharted territory, I wanted to encapsulate a moment in time on a quiet Wednesday morning, over ice.

You grew up in Amarillo, a town in the Texas Panhandle.  What were some defining factors in your childhood that led you to be interested in fashion in the first place?

AG: My grandma.  She passed away, but she was a total shopaholic.  She would always wear her outfits two days in a row.  I don’t know if my other family members could recall that, but my big brother and I always talked about it.  It was so obscure to us, she did not think they were dirty at all.

One year my grandma came to me and was like, “You’re gonna audition for this thing, it’s called The Nutcracker.”  I was always involved in soccer, I’d never heard of that before.  I was not involved in anything artistic prior.  

How old were you?

AG:  Probably six or seven.  I was cast my very first year as an angel, all the children were.  There’s Clara and all the “big girl” dancers: the snowflakes, and the fairies.  I was just so inspired by all of their costumes.  I always always always loved being behind the scenes and feeling like I knew something that the audience didn’t.  Before I was in The Nutcracker, my grandma would take me, my cousins, and my brothers to see it, dressed up with a little purse and fur coat.  I always loved being glamorous.

I feel like your work now has that air of soft femininity, similar to ballet.  You design with a heavy focus on staples like bows and gloves, accessories most prevalent in an older era.  Was that intentional, or more what you were innately drawn to?

AG:  I started with the glove.  The glove, I always found to tell such a classic story of elegance.  I did some research on the glove once I started to make it.  You could tell a woman’s status by the fabric that her gloves were made of.  I wanted to start with an accessory, and the glove just seemed right.  

You make your gloves in an unconventional way, you have holes for every finger but the thumb.  Why did you make that design choice?

AG: I made a custom dress for a friend from college, and as I was making the sleeve, I was thinking about how it could connect to the hand, so I attached the thumb and index finger to it.  Partially it was because I was in a rush and ran out of fabric.  I made it terribly, the fingers were so tight!

I feel like you wouldn’t expect that you have to make the fingers of a glove so wide!

AG: Exactly, I had just traced the hand, but it shrinks up so much, it was the most deformed thing ever.  During the pandemic, I revisited those moments. I wanted to make a glove that was simple to design, and I didn’t want to do five fingers.  Now, I’ve realized that through the functionality of the design, people can’t use their thumbs.  I appreciate it because it’s meant to be worn to a beautiful event, and I don’t want people to use their thumbs anyways.  Why are you gonna be on your phone the whole time at a beautiful event? People don’t actually like that. 

Totally. So what is the purpose of the glove? In some way is the glove an escape from the “now” and a means to revel in another time?

AG: Yes, to truly dress to the nines.  To be extremely glamorous.

You didn’t actually study design in college, you went the business-route at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.  How were you able to really hone your design skills?

AG: The first time I learned to sew was with my grandma.  During my time at FIT, I would go home to Texas in the summer and she would teach me.  She taught me how to sew my very first dress.  She made all of her and her mother’s clothes growing up.

What was the dress you guys made together?

AG: A very cute black-and-white gingham cotton dress. She showed me how to use a pattern, and we sewed it together on her Singer sewing machine.

But the place that I truly learned I had a future in design was at a bridal shop in Williamsburg with a designer named Diana Deane.  She was a dressmaker, a wedding dress maker specifically, and I became her shopgirl.  I would do all of the shop things: vacuum every single day, see clients, clean up, and make tea.  We had the best time. I’d sew buttons for hours, make veils, and small things.  Everyday was such a gift at that job.  I’ve truly never had a job in New York that has made me as happy as that one, so it’s special to look back on that.

It came to a point that she realized I was interested in design, so she had me come early to work.  She bought me a little journal and called it “school.”  She started to teach me how to actually make the dresses.  She taught me draping, how to grade patterns, and how to cut out your pieces.  At the time I was 21, Diana was 27, and this was all something so unattainable.  She made wedding dresses that people wore for their big day, it really blew my mind.

And since then, you’ve made a wedding dress, one for a close friend in Texas.

AG: Yes, only one, she’s such a sweetie.  It was one of my most challenging projects, but I loved it.

Speaking of life events, you’re expecting your first baby! I am curious how that has changed your artistic practice, especially knowing that another human is going to rely upon you.  

AG:  It really stopped me in my tracks and made me think.  There’s no room for this mundane way I’ve been “making.”  I feel like I’ve been working so hard towards things, but in reality, I feel like I could have achieved so much more by now.  I’m a pretty firm believer in not being too hard on yourself, and enjoying the journey.  But I do think that because I’m expecting a son and need to provide for him, there has to be so much more.  It has to be much more real because one day he’s gonna be cognisant of what I do and who I am.  And by that time I need to have accomplished some of the things I’m ready to accomplish.

That’s such a real sentiment. Meanwhile, balancing a day job, we have to find the energy stores either before we start our day, or at the end of the day, to keep going with our work.  How has the love you’ve felt for this baby and your partner encouraged you or pushed in ways you never thought you could goAG: Sorry I just realized I’m crunching on ice.

No worries, it’s perfect.

AG: My partner has shown me the realism of money.  While I can be a designer all day long, I need to be a businesswoman when it comes to these transactions.  Anytime a stylist comes to me and wants to pull an item, I charge them a fee and give them a contract.  There were so many things that I would run around and do for free like deliver things for people without asking for money back.

Yeah a lot of artists run into that here.  We all come here with such a specific drive and backstory, we are willing to make a lot of sacrifices to make our dreams come true.

AG: I think a lot of times people make up the character that they are here, and try to pretend like they never had a past.  We were all kids, and we all did things that were embarrassing, or looked stupid, as adults too.  You got here because of who that person was, so to present as anything but your truest self, which a lot of people do here, who does that hurt more than yourself?

Have you always found an independent flair with everything you’ve done, or have you had to teach yourself that inner confidence?

AG: For some reason, I’ve always had that within me, I think I was just born with it.  Oh my god. I’m breaking all the rules, the ice is falling.  I wasn’t gonna chew it during the interview, and what do I do?  I’m obsessed with and addicted to ice.

(Audibly laughs) Well, as you near the end of your pregnancy, the root cause of the ice addiction, what’s something you hope your son can discover in this life, and what’s something you would like to teach him?

AG: Oh that’s gonna make me cry, that’s beautiful.

It’s already making me cry.

AG: What do I want him to discover? I hope he will discover that no matter what, he’s never alone, and he comes from something greater than this earth.  I hope that comes to him in a way that is natural.  That is a deep wish that I have.

What would I like to teach him?  Oh my goodness, there are so many things I would like to teach him. Wisdom. Wisdom to be a good man.  I do not want any foolery, I’m not even kidding.  As he ages, he’s gonna hopefully know to be a good boy.  There’s a lot of bad boys out here.

Too many.

AG: I can’t even fathom having a conversation with him where I’m like, “you’re being bad.”  Treat people right, whoever you’re gonna be with, just please.

Yes.  And I think you’re gonna lay down the law, he’s not gonna mess around.

AG: When I found out that I was having a son, I realized oh my gosh, I cannot be uneducated, I need to be a smart woman. I need to have my stuff together, you know what I’m saying?  And we’ve been saving money for him.  We’ve been saving coins.  We counted them a few days ago.  We dumped them out and had saved sixteen dollars just by putting change into this little pot.

That’s so sweet. If you could make a wish with one of those coins, say, next week, what would it be?

AG:  I wish my computer would start working because I need to update my website to sell my things.  It’s very interesting how life moves.  Some things don’t stay with you, and you can forget.  But I think everything before this led us here, so we must be where we need to be.  We are all just experiencing life. 

Goosebumps. A spill of the ice marks the end of this interview!

AG: Bye-bye!

Editor’s Note: Gracie Jenkins gave birth to a healthy baby boy on September 26, 2023.  He just celebrated his six-month birthday with a blueberry and naan.  She also got her laptop fixed.

Follow Alexandra Grace on Instagram @alexandragracenyc and @alexandragracejenkins