Just call him Jay3lle.
Pronounced jay-elle, that’s the new name by which Johan Lindeberg will now be known.
On Thursday, the Swedish designer and photographer, who cut his teeth at Diesel before creating the J.Lindeberg and Blk Dnm brands, said that he will now be known professionally as Jay3lle.
“It has been complicated to use my personal name in my creative work when my name is on a brand I’m no longer involved with,” he said. “I have found a new freedom in Jay3lle: a new name and the beginning of a new chapter of my career.”
Reached at his design studio outside Stockholm, the designer added: “It’s time for a new chapter. I’m no longer involved in J.Lindeberg or Blk Dnm and it feels like the right time to take everything to the next level.”
Creating a brand under this new name, he said, provides him with the “creative freedom” he’s been missing. “It feels powerful to have a new identity. It’s like an alter-ego, which is actually quite common for artists.”
The Jay3elle design studio will allow him to take on projects and collaborations without restrictions, he continued. In addition, he plans to design high-end luxury items in small quantities down the road.
He expects to spend the majority of his time in the U.S., where his daughter Blue lives and where he has homes in New York and Los Angeles. But he will also retain his studio and farm in Sweden.
“I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and created three brands. But this is a new platform for creative freedom that will allow me to set free the energy flowing through me and inspire people,” he said. “That’s what I love.”
As Johan Lindeberg, he served as the marketing director of Renzo Rosso’s Diesel brand, helping to build the business in the ’90s and launch it in the U.S. He left Diesel in 1996 to form J.Lindeberg, among the first collections to bring a designer sensibilities to golf wear. After exiting the brand in 2007 following creative differences with the board of directors, Lindeberg worked as a stylist for Justin Timberlake and helped create the William Rast brand just as the premium denim market was blossoming. In 2010, he created Blk Dnm before exiting that brand to focus on his work as a photographer. He returned to J.Lindeberg to work as a creative consultant for two years in 2016 and 2017 before returning to Stockholm to reposition Blk Dnm. Since then he has worked as a consultant for Pernod Ricard to support its Martell, Glenlivet and Avion tequila brands. He has also been creative director during the launch of Absolut Elyx.
Since 2012, the J.Lindeberg brand has been owned by Anders Holch Povlsen, Dan Friis and Allan Warburg of the Bestseller group. Starting in 2020, the brand has been designed by Neil Lewty, an English native whose résumé includes senior head of design for Hugo Boss Sportswear, design director of menswear for Tommy Hilfiger and head of menswear design for Bamford & Sons. Sales for the brand in fiscal 2021 were 827 Swedish kronos, or around $80 million, for the core line and the company is projecting that number to jump to 1200 kronos this year. Its chief executive officer of Hans-Christian Meyer.
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