M.F.A. Fashion Design, grew up in Austin, TX. Before coming to Academy of Art University, she earned a B.B.A. in Marketing with a minor in Philosophy. She recently completed a design internship with gr.dano, a Bay Area ready-to-wear company co-founded by fellow alumna Jill Giordano.
For Fall 2014, she collaborated with Nisha Hanna Btesh, B.F.A. Textile Design, on a womenswear collection that was created with the use of Shibori, the Japanese technique of resistance dying.
Jaci was inspired by the excess of prints worn during the late 1960s, in particular to those seen on the Brady Bunch, and the costumes worn by Mia Farrow in the film Dandy in Aspic. She aimed for her garments to be mix of sophistication and quirkiness.
Nisha Hanna Btesh, B.F.A. Textile Design, is a California native, born and raised in San Diego. During her time as a student at Academy of Art University, she created her own t-shirt line, Company Cream, and designed repurposed garments from items donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society in San Francisco to benefit the organization’s charity auction Discarded to Divine. Her vibrant textile designs mix perfectly with the design aesthetic of Jaci Hodges, M.F.A. Fashion Design, for their collaborative, 1960s-inspired womenswear collection.
