DESIGN DECODER: JEFFREY COCKRAM
His music career never took off, but his stylish leather goods definitely have a rock-’n’-roll edge.
His music career never took off, but his stylish leather goods definitely have a rock-’n’-roll edge.
in the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians, Horace and Jasper are bad guys, Cruella de Vil’s bumbling minions. “She’d send them out in the night to catch the puppies,” Jeffrey Cockram says. “But in my version of the story, they got tired of her s--t and started their own business.”
Cockram did the same, creating Horace & Jasper, which makes leather goods—wallets, overnight bags, clutches, knife rolls and belts— with an edge. “I call it ‘sophisticated bad ass,’” Cockram says. “I want people to realize Calgary is a place where cool stuff is made.”
Cockram is joined on this quest by his wife Liane Marguerite and their intern Georgia Meadows. Most of their products are black leather, many have subtle silkscreening and silver studs. Prices range from about $80 for a simple clutch to about $500 for a leather-lined, silkscreened overnight bag.
Cockram grew up in Hamilton, Ont., where he rode a BMX bike and taught himself to sew as a way to customize his gear. “People would see them and ask where they could buy them, too.” But rather than pursuing a fashion career, he tried to become a social worker. “I thought they’d understand my big black mohawk and my tattoos,” he says with a chuckle, “but they didn’t.”
He spent his time working in restaurants and playing in rock bands with names like Bondage Dog and Speculum. The bands went nowhere, and for a while, it seemed like Cockram wouldn’t either. “I figured I’d be dead by the time I was 25,” he says. “I was a complete waste case of a punk-rock kid.”
After losing his job and apartment in a single week, he hopped on the Greyhound and headed west. At a now-defunct nightclub downtown, he met Marguerite, a fashion designer, mostly lingerie. They’ve been together ever since.
As for Cockram, he worked at Moxie’s and for a time schlepped junk for a building-maintenance company. On one job, cleaning up after a tenant ducked out on the rent, he found some leatherworking tools. His first project was a studded leather insert for the interior of his car door. “It looked cool, so I just kept doing it,” he says.
In September, Horace & Jasper moved from Cockram and Marguerite’s basement into a studio next to National Beer Hall on 10th Avenue S.W. The company recently created uniforms for a restaurant in Chicago, and is working on some footwear designs.
“My life has taken turns I never expected, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” Cockram says. “I feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
THIRTY-FOUR