Rider can’t say when his interest in clothes first materialised, but Jordan remembers his brother taking an early interest in what people wore, possibly as a way of trying to understand where he fit into the larger world. “I loved clothes,” Rider says. “Not fashion per se, but I have always had an emotional attachment to garments.”
That love blossomed in his teenage years, when his wardrobe became an expression of identity as well as a creative outlet. He’d scour the racks of thrift shops for pieces that he could customise before going out dancing at DC’s legendary LGBTQ+ club Tracks. (“I’d look for the same things I’m still attracted to today,” Rider says. “Jeans, military parkas, a zillion blue oxford shirts.”) Still, the idea of art or fashion school never occurred to him. “Maybe because I was growing up around teachers and activists,” he says, “fashion didn’t seem like a way to contribute in [the way] that I wanted to.” Rider attended Brown University, studying in education and Latin American studies, and after graduating in 2002 he found a teaching position at a progressive charter school in Oakland. “It was wild,” he says. “The kids were amazing, but there was abortion, violence, identity, tragedies and hormones – it was a lot.” It was then that Rider slowly realised that, as much as he loved teaching, he couldn’t shake the desire to explore his creative side.
In 2004, he moved back to New York and, through his friend, the designer Trevor Ballin, landed his first job apprenticing with the Garment District couture designer Rogelio Velasco. “It was just four sewers, two pattern-cutters, him and me,” Rider says. “I would cut organza for him, or get pins, or sew for him or manage a fitting.” Rider found a studio apartment – right next door to Ballin – on Christopher Street in the West Village, just above an adult video shop. The West Village was a far more transgressive place in the early noughties than it is today and the streets, near the Hudson River, attracted a large share of gay, trans and nonbinary youth, which made not only for an exciting sense of community but for a kaleidoscopic fashion show taking place right outside their windows. “It was an inspiring place to live,” Ballin recalls, “being surrounded by young kids who wouldn’t let other people’s style define them.” New York, however, proved only a quick step on the way to what Rider soon realised was his dream: to work for Nicolas Ghesquière in the Paris atelier of Balenciaga.
