The nerd who created Jimmy D
James Dobson was a self-confessed nerd at Heretaunga College.
Looking back at himself as a young man who did not know where he fitted in at school, he says it is hard to believe where he is at now.
In 2004, he established his successful fashion label, Jimmy D, and he is now taking centre stage at an exhibition at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt.
The House of Dowse x Jimmy D features items from the Dowse collection and his interpretation of each item.
Curator Chelsea Nichols says the Dowse invited Dobson to re-explore the museum collection he grew up with.
Nichols says Dobson had a big involvement with the exhibition, designing the display and selecting more than 100 artworks from the collection, which reflect aspects of the Jimmy D brand.
Those works will be displayed alongside a small selection of his garments from the Jimmy D archives.
One of his earliest collections was called Right Up My Hutt Valley — a tribute to the Hutt’s memorable city slogan from the mid-1990s. Right Up My Hutt Valley was dreamed up by the Chamber of Commerce, in response to Wellington’s successful Absolutely Positively Wellington logo.
The Dobson of now is hard to recognise in the “quite geeky nerd” who went to Heretaunga College, he says.
“I was something of a geek, I sat with a close group of friends at the same place for lunch and we just flew under the radar.”
The only hint of the person he would become was found in his involvement in theatre sport.
“The thought of that cripples me as an adult ... I cannot believe I did that as a kid.”
After leaving school, he studied at Massey, where he explored photography.
It was at Massey that he began to think about his sexuality.
“People just kept assuming that I was gay and I did not know why people were asking me about it.”
It was during a period in England, working in the “high end” fashion industry, that he started thinking about creating his own fashion label.
“The thought of starting my own label in the United Kingdom overwhelmed me so I returned to New Zealand.”
After “procrastinating” for a year, it was a serve from his mother that led to Jimmy D.
He had received a large tax return from his time in Europe and when she realised he was using the money for other purposes, she urged him to get on with it.
He was 24 when he started Jimmy
D in 2004. The Hutt Valley’s “grungy suburban glamour and wry humour” are the cornerstones of the Jimmy D brand, he says. In 30 Queer Lives by Matt Evison, published in 2022, he explained the thinking behind Jimmy D and the clothes he designs.
“I never related to the glitzy, glamorous side of fashion. There was a Pavement magazine photo shoot in the nineties of a grungy girl in front of a suburban garage; she had braces on her teeth and wore New Zealand labels.
‘‘It was the first time I saw fashion in a way I could relate to and that it didn’t have to be flashy or elitist.”
Dobson, who has spoken about how fashion and queer culture had helped define his career and identity, says he is pleased to be back in the Hutt to explore the roots which had been so influential.
‘‘I am incredibly humbled to have been let loose in The Dowse archives.
‘‘The House of Dowse x Jimmy D features artists that are my heroes, that inspired me to embark on my creative path and artists that I have had the pleasure to unearth through my numerous deep dives into the Dowse’s extensive collection.’’
The Dowse has always been somewhere he feels comfortable visiting and he promises the exhibition is far from boring. “There were not a lot galleries in Upper Hutt, so the Dowse was a beacon of art and culture in the Hutt Valley and a very inspiring place.”
The House of Dowse x Jimmy D will run at The Dowse Art Museum until March 2025.