Designer Jenn Burback Rounds Up Western Wear With a Purpose for Denver Fashion Week

When you think of haunted houses or escape rooms, the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually fashion. But for designer Jenn Burback, working odd jobs in such places inspired her to consider their representation of darkness and fear. This prompted thoughts about people’s struggle with mental health and how that can be expressed through what we wear.

"I believe we all experience some sort of mental health challenges in our lives," says the 34-year-old, who started her designs in 2018. Burback says she's experienced feelings of not doing enough, or comparison syndrome from scrolling on social media. "Having lived with moments of those questions in my life, I feel it's important to raise that awareness."

For her debut at Denver Fashion Week in 2023, she presented two collections that tapped into what a mental health journey might look like if told through clothing, and donated the proceeds to Mental Health Colorado.
The first collection, Genesis, featured straitjacket-type bondage straps and told a story on the runway of someone restrained and then breaking free. "I had a single person on the runway the whole time. They undressed her down to a sports bra and bottom," Burback recalls. "Then they redressed her."

The second collection, Cloteel Wild Horses, reflected her love of Western wear and her roots in Arvada, where she grew up close to the agriculture industry before the development that exists today. “I’m really passionate about the Western world and deeply connected with people in the agricultural community," she says. "I grew up going to farmland and ranches near my dad's family out east and outside of Arvada." Cloteel, taken from a family name, showcased three groups that demonstrated darkness giving way to the light of day as told through color and texture.

Her goal with Western wear is to elevate it to more avant-garde styling for special events rather than everyday wear. She says one of her aspirations is to design at the level of big European fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen and Dior.
Burback gained her fashion know-how with a degree in fashion design in 2011 from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. When she returned to Denver, she looked for ways to climb the fashion ladder to work with a big name. But while Denver's fashion scene has grown over the years, she realized that many designers here are not at a level where they can afford to hire creative directors and head designers to work with them. So she decided to create her own brand.

She turned inward to seek creative inspiration, and found that music fueled her vision. For her Genesis collection, it was the song "'I Started a Joke,' by ConfidentialMX," from the movie Suicide Squad. For Cloteel, it was Lainey Wilson's song "Wildflowers and Wild Horses."

“Music is huge for me. For Cloteel, I probably listened to that song a thousand times while developing the collection," she recalls. "Then I used it on the runway.”

A mix of textures also stands out in her collections, particularly in the Cloteel line. "I wanted to play off of textures because in the Western world, there are so many things going on. There are horses and cows, boots and spurs, hard and soft,” she explains. "I definitely play on that, mixing durable materials with fragile ones. When you think about it, we as humans have these tough exteriors sometimes, but we can be fragile, too.”

Now she's preparing for her second DFW show on Saturday, May 18, again influenced by music and mental health. Show attendees can expect a party vibe with Western looks that encourage people to celebrate themselves. "I'm focused on this idea of a love letter to yourself and embodying who you are," Burback says. "I want people to feel like, ‘I can be who I want to be all day long, and if you don’t like me, that’s fine. But I’m not going to conform to be anybody else.’”

She says fashion design has its challenges, such as people saying Denver's social culture is too casual for high fashion. "I think we are a unique place for fashion. It's become a melting pot between east, west, south and north. We have a rich history in Western styling, and there are those that dress to the nines," she notes. "But it's a different styling than they do in New York."
There's also the cost of doing business. In the past few months of high inflation, the price of everything has increased, including fabric. "I use a lot of leather, and that's not cheap," she says. "And I don't just design with little accents — I buy full hides."

With rising costs, she says she's looking at ways to be more innovative. "I am not a big sustainable designer. It's not that I don't support that; I'm just not good at it," she admits. "But I've challenged myself to start repurposing pieces to create something new."

Despite it all, what she loves most is connecting with people. Burback wants folks to ask how she created certain pieces and why mental health issues are important to her. "It's such a valuable thing to me,” she says. "I'm not just designing a collection to walk the runway, but I want to give purpose to my collections."

Denver Fashion Week starts Saturday, May 11; Jenn Burback will show at Denver Fashion Week Day 7 Society, at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 18, The Brighton, 3403 Brighton Boulevard. Find the full schedule and tickets at denverfashionweek.com.