New Zealand’s faltering economy, the stress of running a business, and a personal loss have impacted on the decision to close, says Jimmy D founder James Dobson in a heartfelt video.
New Zealand designer James Dobson has announced the effective closure of his label, Jimmy D.
Dobson shared the news with his Instagram followers in a video.
The label began in 2004 in his Kingsland flat in Auckland. Since then the label has been featured in publications globally including Lucire and entire Jimmy D looks appear in the collections of Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand.
The Dowse Art Museum hosted a retrospective of Dobson’s work last year.
House of Dowse X Jimmy D 2024. The exhibition paired unexpected delights from The Dowse collection with iconic looks from the Jimmy D archive.
Dobson cites stress, anxiety and the poor economic situation in New Zealand, which had been ranked the fifth worst performing OECD economy by The Economist in 2024, with record departures of its citizens. As he opted to keep manufacturing on-shore and ensured his machinists were paid a living wage, it meant that his margins were “kind of non-existent,” while cashflow proved difficult to manage.
The House of Dowse X Jimmy D was a unique celebration of The Dowse art collection through the eyes of James Dobson, acclaimed designer behind the cult fashion label Jimmy D. James was raised in the Hutt Valley, a place which helped shape the grungy suburban glamour and wry humour that are the cornerstones of the Jimmy D brand. One of his earliest collections was even called ‘Right Up My Hutt Valley’ – a tribute to the Hutt’s memorable city slogan from the mid-1990s.
“Fashion isn’t easy. It’s really hard putting yourself out there every season. Every season I wonder whether I’ve pushed it too far or whether I’ve gone too commercial. It’s a very hard tightrope walk. It’s also really anxiety-inducing, the whole production process of creating clothes, having boxes of stock come back, and then convince yourself that everything in there is completely wrong and will need to be redone,” he explained. “A lot of that is just in my head. As I get further and further along with the label, the more anxiety I get around those kind of things.”
Dobson also mentioned his father’s passing this year, which “put everything into perspective.”
“I feel creatively I could go on forever, but I think I just don’t have a lot left in the tank to keep pushing, so that’s how we came to this decision,” he said. “It’s not that I’ve lost the passion for it, but I just feel very beaten down by this year and I just think it’s time for a change.”
Jimmy D summer 13 ‘Rising Sun, Melting Moon’. Photography Carolyn Enting
Jimmy D will go out in extravagant fashion. The label has hired a space at 30 Cuba Street, Wellington, with a massive sale of all stock, including the current and previous seasons, their full archive, jewellery, shoes, styling pieces, and one-offs.
The sale begins on December 12, running from 9.30 a.m. to 9 p.m. that first day (with drinks by Pals from 5 p.m. and live music by Jess Scott), then 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 13, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on December 14.
An online sale will take place afterwards but there is a substantial amount of work to do to catalogue the items—not easy when Dobson is essentially the only person who is running it.
Dobson said he will take final custom orders until the start of February 2026, with archived fabrics available. He says “absolutely anything” of his designs can be ordered, via info
@jimmyd.co.nz, and the turnaround time should be a few weeks.
Jimmy D will vacate its studio at the end of February, and every card pattern will also be gone.
While the main line and big-artist collaborations finish, Dobson says the Legendary Ts, caps, and socks will continue, and collaborations on those will also continue, thereby keeping the brand in play. “I’m not going to say we’ll never come back, but we definitely won’t be coming back for the foreseeable future, other than keeping our online open and having fun with our Legendary Ts and all that kind of core merch pieces like socks and hats.”
Jimmy D summer 13 ‘Rising Sun, Melting Moon’ and main image. Photography Carolyn Enting
Dobson hinted at starting something ‘exciting’ in 2026 outside of the fashion industry. He says it was always where he wanted to take Jimmy D next.
This article first appeared in Lucire.
